“Those who make their living from rules and more rules are muttering darkly about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s intervention in Monday’s global stock-market crash,” Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes for The Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Cook, after an email from CNBC’s Jim Cramer asking about sales in China, responded with an email of his own. Whatever was happening to their stock prices, Chinese consumers were still buying iPhones, he said, with Apple continuing to ‘experience strong growth for our business in China through July and August.'”
“Mr. Cramer reported the news and the descent in Apple’s stock price moderated a bit—supposedly it’s a bad thing when timely and accurate information is reflected in stock prices,” Jenkins writes. “But Mr. Cook’s comments also had a wider significance. His was a reminder that there’s a real economy of goods and services and transactions out there, especially useful when crashing stock markets are so heavily influenced by monetary manipulations.”
“For his useful and informative act, though, many of the media’s favorite securities lawyers want Mr. Cook hauled up before the Securities and Exchange Commission, under its Regulation FD, which seeks to control the information in stock prices from some imaginary ideal of fairness,” Jenkins writes. “He should be applauded. Mr. Cook lent timely evidence for the view that this week’s stock disaster was only tenuously connected to the real economy.”
“Unfortunately, corporate statements tend to vary as wildly as anybody else’s, from the crunchy and informative to the deeply bogus. An example of the latter was the Apple’s statement to the New York Times last week, after the paper had decided belatedly to notice the record of Dr. Dre,” Jenkins writes. “Apple issued its own statement saying, ‘Dre has apologized for the mistakes he’s made in the past and he’s said that he’s not the same person that he was 25 years ago. We believe his sincerity and after working with him for a year and a half, we have every reason to believe that he has changed.’ Though there is nothing funny about beating up women, this statement is hilarious because Apple certainly did not condition its purchase of Beats on Dr. Dre over the next year and a half demonstrating the sincerity of his regret for his assaults on Ms. Barnes and at least two other women.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless of propriety, Cook should have made the statement about Apple’s business in China via press release, tweet, or open letter to everyone, at the same time, not to a single person, so that nobody potentially had inside information for even a nanosecond (which is all it take for a trade to execute). As for Beats, Apple should have purchased the company if they determined it worthwhile, paid Andre Young his share and simply sent him on him on his way, not provided him with a (seemingly honorary) position at Apple Inc.
Now we’re stuck with a sad, new meaning for “Beats by Dr. Dre.” Change the name, at least, Apple!
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Dr. Dre apologizes for past abuse of women, Apple issues statement – August 21, 2015SEC to sanction Apple CEO Cook for his $63 billion email? – August 24, 2015
Apple shares recover from white-knuckle plunge after CEO Cook emails Jim Cramer – August 24, 2015
Apple CEO Cook may have violated U.S. SEC rules with email to Jim Cramer – August 24, 2015
CEO Tim Cook to Jim Cramer: Apple is seeing strong growth in China through July, August – August 24, 2015