Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the eurozone’s finance ministers, has accused Apple of “[failing] to grasp” the public outcry concerning tax avoidance by multinational corporations.
He was referring to last week’s landmark decision, which handed Apple an enormous tax bill of 13 billion euros ($14.52 billion), based on its supposed underpayment of taxes in the Republic of Ireland. Apple paid a reported 0.005 percent tax on its European profits in 2014.
With his open letter defending Apple’s Irish tax strategy, Tim Cook positions his company as a sledgehammer-tossing freedom fighter at battle with Big Brother-style EU bureaucracy.
But unlike Cook’s previous missives on LGBT rights and the importance of privacy, this open letter seems unlikely to be met with near-unanimous support. While railing against the EU’s massive assessment of €13 billion euros in back taxes owed by Apple, Cook ignores the facts of the matter — and seems tone-deaf about painting the world’s biggest company as an underdog.
Tim Cook has written an open letter addressing Apple’s enormous tax bill, arguing that the European Union’s demand for €13 billion ($14.52 billion) in unpaid back taxes will have a “profound and harmful effect” on “investment and job creation in Europe.”
At present, Apple employs close to 6,000 people in Ireland, as well as “sustaining” 1.5 million jobs across Europe — including those at Apple and other manufacturers, developers and suppliers who rely on it.
The verdict’s in on Apple’s European tax investigation, and the company has been handed a massive 13 billion euros ($14.52 billion) bill for unpaid back taxes in the Republic of Ireland.
The order was made by European Union competition officials, who ruled that Apple was taking advantage of illegal state aid that allowed the company to route profits through Ireland.
The iPhone 7 is coming!
Apple just sent out press invitation to a special event to be held September 7 at 10 a.m. Pacific. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are expected to be unveiled at the event, which will be hosted at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.
This week on The CultCast: You’ve heard of Samsung’s Galaxy Edge … but is an iPhone 8 Plus Edge on the way? Some respected analysts say yes. Plus: iPhone 7 Plus with dual lens was just spotted on the streets; iOS 9.3.5 fixes one of the most invasive iOS exploits to date; Tim Cook just made fat stacks of cash; and, if the rumors prove true, Apple is working on a new social network … to take on Snapchat. No, seriously.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook is taking advantage of the monstrous bonus he unlocked on his fifth anniversary at the helm of Apple by selling 334,000 shares for a big payday.
Today marks Tim Cook’s five-year anniversary as the CEO of Apple after Steve Jobs resigned, and as a reward for making it this long in the top spot he just unlocked a monster bonus.
The flip side to the news that today marks five years since Steve Jobs resigned as Apple CEO is the fact that it also marks Tim Cook’s ascendance to Apple’s top position.
So how has Cook done at the seemingly impossible task of following one of the most-revered business executives in history? Putting on our teacher hats and picking up our best red marking pens, here’s how Tim Cook’s report card reads so far.
Getting iPhone bugs fixed is apparently super-easy if you’re a world-famous diva.
Barbra Streisand says she recently had a huge bone to pick with Apple over the way Siri pronounces her last name. So the singer did what only Barbra Streisand could do: She dialed Tim Cook’s personal phone number.
It’s been almost five years since Tim Cook was named Apple CEO, and during that time the company has seen some pretty incredible highs. But there have been some significant lows, too.
The recent fall in iPhone demand is perhaps the most significant setback, leading to Apple’s first quarterly decline in revenue in 13 years. Cupertino has also been criticized for releasing unpolished products and buggy software in recent years.
So, is Cook doing enough to keep Apple one step ahead of the competition, or does he need to do more? Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we discuss Cook’s first five year’s as Apple CEO.
The release of Apple Maps with iOS 6 was so disastrous it led to the firing of Scott Forstall, former SVP of iOS, and to a rare public apology from CEO Tim Cook.
Almost four years on, Maps is in a very different place. Apple has worked hard to iron out the kinks and add new features that help the service compete with rivals like Google Maps. But is Apple Maps still the laughing stock of maps apps?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fights as we battle it out over the state of Apple Maps.
Due to Apple’s secrecy, and the company’s marketing-driven need to stay “on message,” interviews with senior execs can often be frustratingly free of revelations. That’s not the case with the recent in-depth interview the Washington Post did with CEO Tim Cook, however.
Here are the 10 most interesting tidbits we learned from Cook’s most revealing chat yet.
In a new wide ranging interview, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services, Eddy Cue, revealed how the company fixed a lot of mistakes it made with the launch of Apple Maps in 2012 by utilizing data from the hundreds of millions of iPhones around the globe.
Cue and Apple software chief Craig Federighi sat down to talk about the troubles with Apple Maps, the difference between working for Tim Cook and Steve Jobs, Apple’s competition with Facebook and Amazon and learning from failure.
Apple’s decision to open up macOS and iOS for public betas was inspired by the company’s horrible experience with the iOS Maps debacle in 2012, according to a new interview with Tim Cook, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi.
One of the most notorious botches in Apple history, Maps’ problems ranged from depicting horribly warped landscapes to directing folks visiting the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, to drive across one of the taxiways. And it changed Apple’s culture in the process.
iMessage is the only major messaging service that’s exclusive to one platform. According to Tim Cook, that’s because iMessage helps sell Apple devices — but does anyone actually buy an iPhone for iMessage alone?
Would it really hurt Apple if its popular messaging service went cross-platform? Lots of iPhone and iPad owners also use Android devices, and bringing the service to Google’s platform would provide them with a more seamless messaging experience.
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we throw virtual hands over whether Apple should bring iMessage to Android.
Apple’s new spaceship campus is expected to be completed near the end of the year and as a result Tim Cook’s beautiful pile of dirt is finally shrinking now that landscaping is getting underway.
A new drone video of the Apple campus reveals the progress Apple has made on everything from the underground parking tunnels, the ginormous corporate gym, the pond and garden in the heart of campus and so much more. Droner Matthew Roberts covers all the new goodies in his latest aerial video that does a magnificent job of putting the huge scale of Apple’s campus into perspective.
Check it out:
Apple CEO Tim Cook is planning to help Hillary Clinton in her bid to become the first female president in U.S. history by hosting a fundraiser in Silicon Valley next month for the Democratic nominee.
Cook helped House Speaker Paul Ryan score some sweet Silicon Valley funding at a breakfast fundraiser last month. Now the the Apple CEO is teaming up with the Hillary Victory Fund.
The tough negotiating tactics made famous by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs are starting to hurt the company in the era of Tim Cook, according to a new report that reveals the company’s planned TV service failed to launch as a result.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services, supposedly angered TV industry execs more than any other Apple employee during the negotiations with companies such as Disney and Time Warner.
One billion iPhone devices have officially been sold now since Steve Jobs unveiled the magical smartphone back in 2007, the company revealed today.
Apple CEO Tim Cook made the announcement at a company meeting in Cupertino today that was also attended by COO Jeff Williams and other top Apple executives.
Apple shocked investors with better than expected earnings for Q3 2016 today, despite some ominous signs that some analysts claimed signaled we’ve reached peak Tim Cook.
Thanks to the booming App Store business and other Services, Apple raked in an impressive $42.2 billion in revenue, which Tim Cook says, “was way better than we expected from so many different points of view.”
Here are the most important takeaways from today’s earnings call:
Apple today revealed its results for the third fiscal quarter of 2016, and they make for surprisingly pleasant reading for investors. The company reported revenue of $42.2 billion and quarterly net income of $7.8 billion after App Store sales hit an all-time record.
All eyes are on Apple this afternoon as the company is set to report its Q3 2016 earnings and Wall Street isn’t expecting anything great.
Apple CEO Tim Cook warned in March that the company will post declining revenues compared to a year ago, but with iPhone sales on the decline as customers wait to upgrade to the iPhone 7, the numbers could be a bit lower than investors are hoping for.
Today’s earnings call for Q3 2016 is set to kick off at 2 p.m. Pacific, when analysts from the top firms around the world will have a chance to ask Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri whether iPhone sales have finally bottomed out, or if things are still going to get worse before they get better.
Get in on the action below:
Apple is set to reveal its quarterly earnings this afternoon for the third fiscal quarter of 2016 and if the analysts are right, it could be even worse than Apple’s last disastrous quarter.
Investors were advised by Apple during the last earnings call that revenue will likely be down from what it was in the same quarter last year. Apple is hoping it can get a boost from the iPhone SE and the App Store to stay within expectations, however troubles in China and low iPhone demand could hurt the company more than expected.
Here’s what to watch for when Tim Cook and Luca Maestri talk to investors later this afternoon:
Bob Mansfield has been chosen to head up Apple’s “secret” electric car project three years after stepping down from his executive role, according to a new report.
Mansfield was previously in charge of Mac hardware at Apple and led development of products like the MacBook Air, iMac and iPad.
