Tim Cook - page 47

Now that Apple’s acquisition of Beats has finally been made official, Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine took the stage at the the inaugural Code Conference tonight to give a peak behind the scenes of deal, as well as glimpse at what’s to come in 2014 – including the best product pipeline the company has seen in 25 years.

The interview comes as Apple is preparing for its annual developer’s conference in San Francisco next week where it’s expected to announce new versions of iOS and OS X, and while will have to wait to see if any hardware will come out as well, Eddy Cue is already hard at work hyping Apple’s upcoming products.

Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg led the conversation with Eddy Cue starting things off by parroting Tim Cook’s statements that Apple acquired Beats for three reasons: Talent, Headphones, and a Music Subscription Service, before revealing these eight new tidbits on the deal as well as the future of Apple:

Three weeks of speculation and rumors have led to this. Apple is finally buying Beats for $3 billion.

News of the deal broke weeks ago but the tech world is still scratching its head, wondering why Apple decided to buy a company that peddles overpriced plastic headphones and is co-anchored by one of hip-hop’s most notorious MCs.

Forgetting the fact the fact that Beats has captured 60% of its market, makes over $1 billion in sales and has one of the fastest growing music subscription service in the U.S., the acquisition is the most perplexing Apple purchase since NeXT, but now that Tim Cook has broken the silence on why Apple bought Beats we finally answers you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

Apple’s acquisition of Beats is official, and it’s clear that the move is more about the talent Apple is getting than anything else.

After the buyout was announced this afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained the reasoning behind the company’s decision. “What Beats brings to Apple are guys with very rare skills,” he said in an interview with Re/code. “People like this aren’t born every day. They’re very rare. They really get music deeply. So we get infusion in Apple of some great talent.”

So it’s obvious that Apple thinks very highly of the people at Beats. But who exactly are they getting as part of the deal?

The second charity auction to offer a sit-down with Tim Cook has closed, and $330K has been raised by the winning bid for the RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights.

The winner, who’s identity has not been disclosed, will get to have lunch with Cook at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Another perk was added by Cook before the auction closed, but even that failed to garner as much interest as the previous auction.

Katie Cotton, the woman in charge of Apple’s worldwide corporate communications is undocking from the mothership after nearly two decades of service at Apple, according to a report from Re/code.

Cotton has been one of Apple’s top ranking female VPs since joining the company 18 years ago and has been crucial in shaping the media narrative around pretty much every product from the iPod to the iPad.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling had the following to say about Cotton’s departure:

It’s been a long wait for Angela Ahrendts to finally join Apple, but as the new VP of Retail just took office last week, Apple decided to make her move from fashion to tech much sweeter by granting her stock options worth a whopping $68 million.

AAPL shares have been extremely undervalued for years, according to CEO Tim Cook, but it looks like Wall Street is starting to warm on Apple as the share price crested above $600 this afternoon for the first time since 2012.

After hitting an all-time high of $702.10 in September 2012, Apple’s stock has failed to regain its old luster despite record iPhone sales and earnings. Tim Cook announced last month that the stock would be split 7-to-1 in June, sending shares prices on a steady climb since hitting $524 per share the day after the announcement.  

Apple has donated $500K to the anti-poverty initiative SF Gives, according to people close to the matter.

Launched in March this year, SF Gives is the joint venture of Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and Daniel Lurie, CEO of the nonprofit Tipping Point. Their goal is to get 20 businesses to contribute $500,000 each to fund local charitable programs.

Of course, when you’ve got more money in the bank than the gross domestic product of the whole of Luxembourg, giving $500K to charity isn’t exactly breaking the bank. But it’s interesting because it shows a public commitment to charity in line with Tim Cook’s vision for Apple as a philanthropic “force for good” in the world.

Less than a decade ago, Apple was singled out by Greenpeace as one of the least environmentally friendly tech companies on the planet.

Apple has since turned over a new leaf, embracing environmentalism as something every bit as central to the company as the latest iPhone.

Just how important became evident a few months ago, when, during a routine earnings call, Cook spoke of his dream for Apple as a “force for good in the world beyond our products.” The recent global celebrations for Earth Day for the first time in nearly a decade mean that his dream is closer to becoming a reality.

So what changed exactly?

Wall Street is lining up to stuff its pockets with cash from Apple’s money printing empire, but rather than dipping into its massive offshore cash pile to pay for its expanded buyback program, Apple is once again planning to raise an enormous amount of debt to pay off  investors.

If you’ve ever wished you could grab lunch with Apple’s Tim Cook, now is your chance. Cook is auctioning off a lunch date at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. All proceeds from the action will go to the RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights.

And yes, you might be experiencing deja-vu. Cook did a similar auction last year, and the top bidder paid $610,000 to have coffee with the CEO.

Apple turned what could have been a deathly boring financial ritual into an occasion for celebration Wednesday, posting record numbers and making headlines with some unexpected moves.

Here’s our take on everything you need to know from the latest quarterly earnings call.

Tim Cook will put his iPhone on speaker this afternoon to tell the world how much money Apple has made selling us insanely great gadgets, and we’ll be liveblogging the call.

During the quarterly earnings report, which starts at 2 p.m. Pacific, Cook and company will share details about Apple’s Q2 financial performance with investors and the rest of the faithful.

Some analysts predict a yawn-inducing “business as usual” earnings report, but you never know – Cook might have to sing some fancy arpeggios if the numbers don’t jibe with predictions made last year, when he crowed about exciting products in the Apple pipeline.

Whether Tim’s talk leads to boos or a standing ovation, Cult of Mac will brave the recital of all the mind-numbing money-speak to help you tune in to the true meaning behind it all. Keep this page open as we post all the interesting bits.

Under the watchful eye of Tim Cook Apple’s gone from the most powerful tech company in the world to the most green. Yesterday’s new ad shone the spotlight on Apple’s environmental practices but the true celebrations of going green kicked off today for Earth Day.

Select Apple Stores around the world sprouted green leafed logos to go with new Earth Day shirts and lanyards for Specialists and Geniuses, but rather than driving all the way to your local store we’ve gathered shots of Apple Stores near and far celebrating Apple’s pledge to leave the world better than they found it.

Take a look:

Apple has released its latest commercial, and it’s a doozy.

Called “Better,” the ad (which is narrated by Tim Cook) refers to Apple’s work in terms of its environmental efforts — describing the company’s push to reduce its carbon footprint, conserve resources, and inspire others to follow suit.

When it comes to emoji, Apple supports everything from a smiling pile of feces to intricately detailed sunset landscapes. But if you’re looking for racial diversity there’s not a black person to be found and we’re not sure if the dude with the thick mustache is supposed to be latino, but if you scroll through the collection you’ll get the point.

The lack of racial diversity in emojis was not lost on MTV Act’s Joey Parker who decided to email Tim Cook about the controversy and was surprised to get a response the next day about Apple’s efforts to make emoji more diverse.

Here’s what Apple PR Queen Katie Cotton had to say about the emoji controversy:

Secret sauce—it’s the reason Apple keeps winning where others fail, and on our newest CultCast, we discuss the recipe that keeps Apple ahead of the pack. Plus, iOS 8 rumors detail some powerful new features; whispers of an impossibly thin iPhone 6; A-list musicians praise Pono as the digital music player for audiophiles; iPad 4 makes a comeback; and we reveal our favorite Cult movies on a all-new Get To Know Your Cultist!

Guffaw your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the uproarious good time commence.

And thanks to FreshBooks for sponsoring this episode! That’s right, Fresbooks the simple online accounting solution built for small business owners – just like you – who want to skip the headache of tax time. For a limited time, try FreshBooks free 60 days, and enter “CultCast” in the “How Did You Hear About Us” section.

Show notes up next!

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Episode

CultCast #118 – The Secret Sauce

On The CultCast this week

Leander Kahney – Cult of Mac Editor-in-Chief, loyal subject of the Queen.
Erfon Elijah – Cult of Mac writer and host of The CultCast.
Buster Heine – Cult of Mac writer and community manager.

This Week’s Stories

iOS 8 Apple considers Notification Center Messages tweaks removing Game Center app (Discussion)

Pegatron And Foxconn Gearing Up For iPhone 6 Production [Rumor]

Apple Retires iPad 2, Replaces It With Retina Display Model

Apple Confirms The 8GB iPhone 5c Will Not Be Sold In The U.S.

Tim Cook Says ‘Haunted Empire’ Book Is A Bunch Of Nonsense

Tim Cook has been named one of the top 50 greatest leaders in the world by Fortune. The 53-year-old Apple CEO is positioned at number 33 on the list, and the only American tech CEO above him is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at number 10.

Dozens of books have been written about Apple and Steve Jobs since the latter’s passing in 2011. None have painted as grim a picture for Apple’s future as Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs by Yukari Iwatani Kane, but in a rare public statement Tim Cook has come out to bash the book, calling it simply “nonsense.”

In our review, Luke Dormehl says Kane’s book was a missed opportunity that ultimately falls shorts, but Tim is a bit harsher with his criticism, saying Haunted Empire doesn’t properly capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company for that matter.

Here’s the money quote from Tim:

Writing a book about any technology company is hard. Books take a long time to write, and a longer time to make it into print and arrive in stores. Technology, on the other hand, moves quickly. As a tech author, you have two options. One is to write a book that tries its best to be timely by making it to market as soon as possible. The other is to wait until a book-length narrative has unfolded, and then to write about it. Tech writers, I suggest, would typically prefer the latter. Book publishers prefer the former.

Activist investor Carl Icahn is at it again — and Apple might be lending moral support to his latest target.

Tim Cook was reportedly one of several tech leaders, along with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who was consulted by eBay CEO John Donahoe for advice on how best to deal with Icahn.

Donahoe has been locked in conflict with Icahn regarding Icahn’s suggestion that eBay should spin PayPal off as its own company.

Steve Wozniak hasn’t been involved in Apple business for a long, long time. However, that wasn’t enough to stop him from participating in a recent, wide-ranging discussion at CeBIT 2014 in Hannover — on everything from Tim Cook’s performance as CEO, to whether or not Apple still has the cool factor.

If living next door to Tim Cook is on your bucket list you just missed the narrow window to scoop up the condo next door to the Apple CEO.

After being put on the market just a few weeks ago the four bedroom condo owned by Google Ventures co-founder, Bill Marris has been bought for a little under $3 million.

Earlier this week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Tim Cook for a lunch as part of his tour of the United States.

In the aftermath of the Wednesday meeting, the Prime Minister uploaded a short video clip to his YouTube channel, offering a brief inside glimpse of the Apple headquarters in Cupertino.

Tim Cook lashed out at shortsighted, bottom line-driven investors during Friday’s annual shareholders meeting — telling them to “get out of [Apple] stock.”

The exchange concerned the conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, which was pushing Apple to disclose the cost of its sustainability programs, and the impact this had on the company’s earning power.

Cook was asked about Apple’s plans to have 100 percent of its power come from green sources — and whether this was the case only because of government subsidies on green energy.

Asked to commit point-blank to only pursuing moves immediately profitable to Apple, Cook responded with anger — noting that Apple does many things because they are right and just, and not simply about making a return on investment (ROI).