Speaking of Apple executive HR news, in his Power On Bloomberg column last weekend, Mark Gurman pooh-poohed the Financial Times’s recent report that Tim Cook was likely to retire early next year (paywalled, alas, but summarized by MacRumors):
In October, I wrote that the internal spotlight on Ternus was
“intensifying,” and that barring unforeseen circumstances
he would be the leading candidate. But I didn’t put a date on when
a change might happen. Then, around midnight two Fridays ago, the
Financial Times published a report with three central claims:
Apple is “intensifying” succession planning; Ternus is likely the
next CEO; and Cook is expected to step down between late January
and June.The first two points are anything but revelations if you’ve read
Bloomberg coverage and Power On, or have simply been paying
attention to the realities of Cook’s age and tenure. The timing,
however, is another matter entirely. It’s a huge deal that the FT
did this: A respected publication should only predict the CEO
transition date for a company of Apple’s scale with a high level
of confidence — based on people legitimately in the know.This is where I have concerns. Based on everything I’ve learned in
recent weeks, I don’t believe a departure by the middle of next
year is likely. In fact, I would be shocked if Cook steps down in
the time frame outlined by the FT. Some people have speculated
that the story was a “test balloon” orchestrated by Apple or
someone close to Cook to prepare Wall Street for a change, but
that isn’t the case either. I believe the story was simply false.
They can’t both be right. Either the Financial Times or Bloomberg and Gurman will have a serving of claim chowder no later than June.
