“The last time we wrote about Doug Kass — a small hedge fund manager with a large presence on CNBC — it was to document a nifty piece of stock manipulation played out on his Twitter feed in February, the day before Apple’s annual shareholder meeting,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “Apple’s share price was down and Kass was long the stock. He tweeted a rumor that the company was about to announce a split, the stock went up, he sold his shares at a profit, he tweeted that the rumor was baseless and then spent the rest of the day hurling insults at his critics.”
“Well, Kass is at it again. On Sunday, citing the same “Gnome” that was the source for his stock split story, he tweeted: ‘@DougKass: From my Gnome, high above the Alps – ‘Is Apple’s Tim Cook… Cooked?,”” P.E.D. reports. “Kass, it turns out, is not alone in suggesting that the solution to Apple’s woes on Wall Street is to fire its CEO. We’ve been hearing whispers to that effect from disgruntled shareholders for weeks, but now — two days before Cook is scheduled to report Apple’s March quarterly earnings — they’ve come to the surface.”
P.E.D. writes, “Make no mistake, the people who want Tim Cook’s head on a spike are not friends of Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we just wrote on Saturday, “Funny, we didn’t hear anybody complaining about Tim Cook last September as Apple went parabolic nearly a year after Steve Jobs’ death. Patience, padawans; not much longer now.”
We wouldn’t bet against him. – MacDailyNews Take, regarding Tim Cook, December 12, 2012
Related articles:
Doug Kass shows how easy it is to manipulate shares of Apple – February 27, 2013
Can the U.S. SEC prosecute Doug Kass over Apple stock split rumor? – February 27, 2013
Rotten rumors of impossible Apple stock split helps fund manager Kass clear profits – February 26, 2013
Apple stock split rumor pushes shares higher – February 26, 2013
Doug Kass: Apple to announce stock split on Wednesday – February 26, 2013
The trouble with Tim Cook is he’s never dropped acid all his life before. He should blow a line of coke and seek inspiration from that.
Who want’s to get all jittery and nervous? Coke does not inspire, though I heard LSD/Mushrooms do.
I am committed to the thought, meds come from your doctor and should be prescribed. If you put anything in your body, it should not impact your cognitive and perception abilities. It should be chemically inert.
Caffeine is okay.
Alcohol is okay, once a day, no more than 1 oz, 30ml, 30g – 40%.
Obviously you have never benefited from drug use. If everybody took LSD the world would be a better place.
I don’t accept this premise that if you don’t support Tim Cook then you’re not a friend of Apple. Heard of Fascism, anyone? Anyone?
It is completely possible to love Apple, not care about the stock market but not be a fan of Tim Cook. My guess is that there are millions out there who agree with me.
Those of you who attack anyone who disagrees with you, you’re just as much trolls as those you accuse.
This whole “Tim Cook must go” nonsense is ridiculous. It’s one thing if an established troll like Rocco Pendola churns out the same anti-Cook FUD week after week. But this is starting to get ridiculous.
Then again, the whole media coverage of Apple’s so-called decline is ridiculous. The fact that THIS snake has a hand in it is just absolutely disgusting.
I have more respect for a streetwalking whore than I do the whores in the mdeia, and on Wall Street. At least with a street walker there’s no hidden agendas and both parties know what they are going to get.
You never know what the agenda is coming from a Wall Street type, or a talking head. For sure it isn’t honesty.
Whores don’t streetwalk any more. There’s an app for that.
A-ha! People starting to figure this whole anti-Apple “business-analyses” is bullshit. Good! It is about bloody time.
The focus on Apple – good or bad – has been out of control for over a decade. Apple releases CRT iMacs in different colors and suddenly everyone has candy-colored products. Apple pushes touch technologies and suddenly every display has touch, whether it adds value or not. Apple releases Siri and, as soon as the copying machines can spit out a simularcrum, there is S-Voice and the like.
And, now, far too many people are focused on ousting Cook when idiot CEOs like Ballmer have been steering their companies towards disaster for years with little fanfare. I rode AAPL all the way down and I still support Cook. And it is not just Cook, himself, that is the issue. It is the impact that Cook has on Apple management and Apple as a whole. I won’t lose faith in Cook unless the employees at Apple lose faith in him.
Don’t tell me who you want to get rid of…that’s easy to do with little fear of ever being held accountable. Instead, tell me who you would elevate to CEO of Apple. Discuss their merits relative to Cook and explain why you think that this change would benefit Apple and its shareholders when playing CEO musical chairs at other companies has often turned out bad.
They want Apple’s money, they want Tim Cook’s head, they want Apple in debt, they want a weak submissive Apple, they want control…
Ain’t gonna happen!
Apple will prevail and continue to lead and all long loyal Apple customers know that their loyalty is not just teenage “fanboism”, but real appreciation and participation.
PED over the years has been an incredible friend of Apple, and I for one am very appreciative for his contributions to the community.
Many years ago he was diametrically the other way…then he listened, reconsidered and has become the one of few, if not the only Apple investigating journalist out there, who actually bothers to seek and confirm the facts.
Hats off to PED that takes balls!
Here is the nut of it.
“For the record, Apple is still trading higher today that it was when Cook replaced Steve Jobs. The forces that drove the stock up to over $700 and then down to below $390 seem to me to have more to do with a dysfunctional securities market than anything Cook has done as CEO.”
Yes, but the iMac delay, the updating everything in front of Christmas and the end of the year, the lack of PR, the lack of any reasonable TV advertising, … is Tim Cook and the Apple board. And then Tim tells the investors (the way you would your 3 year old child) “BE PATIENT”. That is Tim Cook!
Hmmm is J-T for Just Trolling???? By any chance.?
Can someone please tell us what Cook has done as CEO? Anything?
… pissing and moaning about the fact that he was gay a little over a year ago. Actually, they stopped complaining about EVERYTHING AAPL a little over a year ago.
RP has it right … it’s all about the idiots who run the market.
He’s a wizard at juggling many balls and negotiating. Steve put him in charge. Therefore steve foresaw the next phase as involving many balls — projects — and needing to hammer suppliers to get them done right. That bodes well for apple over the next 5-7.
He was one of Jobs’ first major hires in 1998. Jobs not only did not suffer fools but demanded A level performance. 13 years at Jobs’ side and the person Jobs’ turned to take the reins during illness and, ultimately, run Apple. I think this should provide Cook the rope to run the company for some time. Maybe it falls short in the end but juxtaposing Jobs’ judgement and analysts like Kass is a joke. Kass and his ilk are crumb grabbers on the periphery of where things actually are decided and happen.
There’s been an ongoing attempt by many to bring Apple down. Continued criticism over labor issues which face all electronics companies, constant harping by the Eco-terrorists even though Apple leads most companies on green manufacturing and now the constant stock manipulation talk from numerous analysts and vested parties. Motley Fool has been trashing Apple for many months now.
So wall street decides to to drop the value of apple stock and now somehow that’s Tim Cook’s fault? That’s wall street being assholes.
Quoting the macalope: “Wall Street cannot fail, it can only be failed.”
THE VALUE OF STEVE JOBS = $250,000,000,000
Had nothing to do with Tim.
Steve’s passing finally hit home…
SHHHHHHHHH…i mean shhhhhhhhhhhh…it’s Tim Cook. ext-ne on ad-ba e-cee-o-ye
There’s a parallel in “The Godfather”:
Sollozzo arrives in New York and enlists the aid of the Tattaglia family for his new heroin business. He then goes to the Corleone family to obtain money and protection from the police and courts. Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) refuses, however, stating that the drug business is bad for the neighborhoods and would strain his political connections.
Sollozzo, realizing that Vito’s eldest son and Corleone family underboss Sonny (James Caan) would be more receptive to the heroin trade, decides to murder Vito.
Einhorn and Kass (or someone like them) arrives in New York and enlists the aid of Reuters for their new hedge fund businesses. They invest in Apple to obtain its money. Tim Cook refuses, however, stating that the money belongs to the shareholders and is needed for Apple’s future plans.
Einhorn and Kass, hoping that the next person selected by the board would be more receptive to distributing the money, decide to oust Cook.
And Scott Forestall sleeps with the fishes.
Is that the scene where the fat guy gets vivisected?
Hey Tim! What the hell is Apple doing in the Maps business?
Apple Maps will go the way of “Ping”….
Eric, I know you are just trolling… but the answer is Google would not give Apple the better maps and voice. so Apple got its own maps, voice, traffic etc. And as always, Apple’s version will just keep getting better and better.
JAT
I’m not trolling at all. What good is a map app that I don’t trust to use? It bugs the hell out of me when Apple Maps comes up instead of Google Maps within my Apps.
Google was willing to give Apple better maps and voice. Apple didn’t like the terms under which it was given… and now there’s no option to make Google Maps the default option.
Yes I have the Google Maps App, and I use it exclusively.
Again, what the hell does Apple know about Maps? They know about music, movies, and video… but Maps? They don’t have a clue, and it’s a waste of limited resources and Eddy Cue’s time.
Tim Cook needs to put efforts into things that have real appeal:
– iPad Mini with Retina Display
– Lighter iPad
– New iPhone
– New Laptops (i.e.: Macbook Air with Retina Display)
– New Mac Pro
Maps doesn’t make any of these products better.
…and Pong
Again, apple must defend the company. The same people generate who constantly write bull sh&# about the company are the ones who behind the Tim Cook rumors. Hey, it’s working… Apple is too silent.
Wake up Apple, defend yourself.
Cook does not have what it takes to run Apple at it’s best. He is an operations guy- someone who makes the trains run on time.
Steve Jobs has been food for worms for quite some time now and there is nothing but effed up launches, half baked decisions, misfires, screwed up hires and the rest to show for his (Cook’s) tenure.
Over at Google and Microsoft they are saying let Cook stay CEO for as long as it takes. They like Cook’s strategy- they like it a lot.
I think that you just qualified for the dumbest thing said on the Internet today. Please evolve back under your rock.
$398.67/share, fanboi
You just exposed your colors droidtard.
That is news to my iPhone 5, iPad (3rd Gen), Mac Pro, Airport Extreme Base, Apple TV, Mac mini Server, etc.
It’s really nice to see that most of the 20 plus people who posted here are on the same page.
Who’s behind the sudden Tim-Cook-must-go whisper campaign? That’s so easy to answer: Manipulators Manipulators Manipulator!