“Apple is holding its shareholder meeting on Friday, February 28,” Chuck Jones writes for Forbes. “I’m expecting that it will mainly consist of the typical non-exciting business review with nothing important being announced. However, it would not surprise me if Peter Oppenheimer’s retirement is announced since he has been CFO since June 2004.”
“While in many ways a CFO leaving is important I believe Apple has been laying the groundwork for a transition,” Jones writes. “Prior to the previous two earnings conference calls Gary Wipfler, Apple’s Treasurer, was usually the only other executive besides Oppenheimer and Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who were on the calls. Starting with the October 2013 call Luca Maestri, Apple’s Corporate Controller, has been on the calls and for the January 2014 conference call he handled questions about operating expenses and margins. Maestri joined Apple in February 2013 after being Xerox CFO and as a side note since then Apple has become much more aggressive with its stock buyback program.”
“Oppenheimer joined Apple in 1996, became its CFO in June 2004 and is 51 years old,” Jones writes. “Overall he has done a very good job growing the company and given the time commitments after ten years it would not surprise me to see him leave sometime this year and possibly at the shareholder meeting.”
Read more in the full article here.
“In a surprise move Apple, Inc. (-43.6%) announced that Jony Ive would be assimilating the position of outgoing CFO Oppenheimer. Jony was quoted as saying, ‘I just want to make the numbers look better.'”
And not only would the man provide beautiful numbers. If you look closely you will notice an impossibly precise chamfered edge engineered into each character…
Will the new person have a pulse? Will the comments that the new person have not have the properties of a Black Hole on Wall Street?
It is possible that Oppenheimer plans to retire soon. It is also entirely possible that Apple management is simply grooming Maestri as a potential replacement for Oppenheimer’s retirement many years from now. Apple could even be preparing Maestri for a different upper management position. Lots of speculation…
Exactly. How long was Tim groomed for CEO. Done right succession occurs over many years not months or one year. I would be very surprised if this is really happens.
Thanks for your service, Oppenheimer. Don’t let the door hit your fat ass on the way out.
In true corporate form, watch as the board of directors allows him to stuff tens of millions of dollars into his offshore accounts before he leaves. Such is it the current state of crony capitalism. Too bad Apple stopped being different a long time ago.
Obviously, you know what you are talking about since you have intimate knowledge of the inner workings and operations of Apple.
Just when as it that you “graduated” from Apple U?
I have the sense this is just a filler article. AKA more August Effect In February. Kind of pathetic.
Speculation or informed speculation? If it’s the former, if I were an editor, I’d kill the story before it ran. If it’s the latter, we’ll see.
Oppenheimer has done a very solid job in his tenure with the company. Debt has only increased by deliberate choice and is quite manageable. Apple’s growing mountain of cash is well documented, testament to Mr. Oppenheimer’s management. And Apple has taken advantage of every opportunity to protect its cash, something too many businesses fail to do.
I will wait to accept the assertions of this article. If it is speculation, I hope the reporter is held accountable for fanning flames.
Apparently, he’s had a blast!
18-years is a long time. He was thirty-three when he took he job from Fred Anderson along with the heat from the SEC, but he survived the scandal and boosted Apple’s numbers enough to propel Apple into rarified air as the richest company on the planet.
That should look good on his resume.
he will likely never need to work again, so it will be wasted on his resume.
can i use it on mine?
You really think he’s done? Isn’t he just 51?