“It’s no secret (and no surprise) that Apple (AAPL) has not been the same since the retirement and death of Steve Jobs in 2011,” Joel West writes for Seeking Alpha. “But with the stock stalled, now some are calling for Jobs’ hand-picked successor, Tim Cook, to get the axe.”
“The public challenge came this week from Trip Chowdhry, head of a small (and little-known) Bay Area stock analyst firm. From my PR background, it appears to be a (successful) attempt to gain publicity by getting ahead (or fueling) a change at Apple,” West writes. “His March 8 analyst note is direct and to the point… Apple Shareholders, Apple Employees and the Developer Community at-large have lost confidence is Apple’s current leadership. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is being incentivized to operate in a comfort zone of complacency until August 2016. To prevent further destruction of shareholder value, Apple’s CEO and CFO need to be replaced sooner rather than later. The team of Jon Rubenstein [sic] (Father of iPod) as CEO and Fred Anderson as CFO, may be best to revive Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: As evidenced by that last sentence, Trip is aptly named.
“While I recommend reading the entire document, I’m not sure how much stake I put in his conclusions, and not just because he misspelled the name of his would-be savior, Jonathan Rubinstein,” West writes. “If Apple holds true to form, it will be like any other Fortune 500 company and fight change tooth and nail. The directors will circle ranks around the CEO, either because they believe in him, because they are cautious, or because they know a new CEO will replace most of the board. (Al Gore, in particular, seems unlikely to be retained by a future board, and so can cash his $54m in Apple shares and move on to something else). So if there is going to be change at Apple, it will come from BlackRock, the investment firm that is Apple’s largest shareholder… As someone who sleeps in a house paid for by Apple’s success from 1998-2002, I’d like to see Apple regain its mojo. But at this point, I’m not optimistic enough to place a major bet on such a revival.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple is operating exactly as it did under Steve Jobs: Disruptive innovation happens sporadically and then each product is refined in quest of perfection.
• iPhone was released 5 years, 7 months, and 19 days after iPod.
• iPad was released 2 years, 9 months, and 5 days after iPhone.
• Tim Cook has been Apple CEO for 2 years, 6 months, and 17 days.
