“A day after rabble-rousing investor Carl Icahn made it clear he had lost his showdown with Apple, the iPhone maker’s CEO didn’t bother responding,” Mark Rogowsky writes for Forbes. “He was too busy tweeting about the passing of Nelson Mandela. That’s the public Tim Cook, always the gentleman.”
“If you had listened to any of Apple’s product announcements or earnings calls, or seen him show up unannounced at an Apple store for an iPhone launch, you’d find a soft-spoken southern gentleman who nevertheless leaves no doubt he’s firmly in command,” Rogowsky writes. “That equanimity is why he is and has been the right man to lead Apple in the post-Steve Jobs era.”
“It’s also why he’d never tell Icahn to take a hike,” Rogowsky writes. “It’s a shame, because if Cook wanted to make his case through the media, he could publish a letter like this…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: While a “go pound sand” would be momentarily satisfying, Cook’s cool nonchalance toward Icahn is the ultimate brush off.
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I think it’s a great letter and one that TC should issue. I’d have no issue with tackling Ichan head on.
Well ‘taken’ MDN
Agree. Tim Cook is cool guy in more ways than one. He doesn’t have to stoop or lower his standards for anyone including ICahncrap.MDN you’re right on.
The only people that would back Icahn are the Apple haters and the profit takers.
Icahn likely thinks Tim Cook is a milquetoast…but he is wrong. I love the public dissing of Icahn. That has to peeve him more that a blatant NO!
If Mark Rogowsky had a pair, some integrity, an ego that could be held in check, a smidgen of intelligence, some ethics, and a firm grasp of what politeness is about, he’d avoid attempting to assume to put his speculative words and his speculative thoughts into someone else’s mouth and do what journalist are supposed to do, report the news.
Mark Rogowsky, you are an asshole, no if’s and’s or butts.
Let Apple Tim Cook speak his own mind on Carl Icahn or anyone else.
Carl Icahn is the A-hole. He has no glue what Apple does with it’s money. There is lots of people who thinks that the money just sits there. With that money Apole buys components and production power and it does not show in the interest rates. It shows in the profit margins that are really healthy. So STFU.
No argument there, Carl Icahn is another A-hole. and just because I did not mention him is no reason to tell me to STFU. That’s a real head shaker.
I’m reminded of that colourful American idiom, “Go take a flying fork (?) at a rolling doughnut” (or, as they prefer to mis-spell it, ‘do nut’).
Of course, the expresion doesn’t really work over this side of the ‘Pond’, as our doughnuts replace the boring old Yankee hole with a filling of raspberry jam, vanilla cream, or (oh, yummee!), chocolate sauce!
Your version is likely to be pretty messy when you dunk it in coffee.
GFYS Carl !!!
This author is naive. Carl Icahn is an Apple shareholder. He benefits when Apple share price goes up, like any Apple investor. Whenever he raises the possibility of an increased share buyback, AAPL is pushed a bit higher. AAPL going higher is good for Icahn (and all other AAPL investors).
THAT is why Icahn is making these announcements. It’s a legal form of AAPL manipulation. Icahn does NOT really want Apple in increase its stock buyback, if he can make AAPL go up just by “suggesting” it.
Tim Cook is no dummy either. He knows Icahn is playing this game, and does not care. That’s while he is quiet on the matter, and he certainly would not publish such a blowhard “open letter.” I’m sure he has no problem with AAPL going higher, but he’s not going to involve himself in Icahn’s attempts at manipulating AAPL’s price.
Ken speaks the truth. This is the most obvious, yet least recognized, form of stock manipulation.
“southern gentleman” ??? Cook is a pushover.
If he had balls, he would publicly tell both Icahn and the NSA to take a hike. One can be diplomatic while telling others to go to hell.
Cook’s cautious slow style inspires little confidence that Apple will ever again make the bold moves to create entirely new markets, and that’s a large reason AAPL stock has flatlined now that he’s fully in charge.
With a few exceptions, everything released by Cook has been late, ugly, buggy, and/or mere incremental refreshes. There’s a reason that everyone keeps comparing Cook to Jobs — they can plainly see that the magic of Jobs’ obsessive focus on user experience is fading fast. A real leader would take that pile o’ cash and release a lot more exciting new hardware in a lot of new markets all over the planet, serving a few more price points. I.e., listen to the users and deliver beyond their expectations. Instead Cook is plowing $5 billion into an aerobie office shrine to ugly minimalist architecture.
As the saying goes: “The opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference.” Cook is in a position to be indifferent to Icahn. He is also indifferent to the daily ups & downs of APPL stock.
I’m not sure he even deserves to be acknowledged.