Opinions on Tim Cook?

[Anteaus]

Ballmer was Gates' old frat buddy. I think it's terribly unfair to compare Tim Cook to him. Cook was extremely successful as COO, the debate is whether he's the right guy leading Apple through these highly competitive times.

I'm not sure if Ballmer was ever very successful at anything, except for basically going all-in on Microsoft stock I believe in the late 80s; and that bet turned out to be be very right. Microsoft did grow steadily under his CEO tenure, but I'm not sure much of that is attributable to him.

You make a good point. I guess I just meant that in both cases, Balmer and Cook were given the keys to billion dollar corporations that their predecessors built from the ground up. I won't deny Cook is a great executive as you have to be at that level. I just mean that being the guy is a lot different than being the guy the other guy counts on. Balmer lacked the forward thinking vision that Gates had, and in response the payday came but the corporation as a whole started to decline. Cook is at a crucial juncture, as the next 10 years are dependent on decisions he makes today.

As far Gates and Jobs, Jobs was arguably the stronger personality but also with bigger scruples. I think both were once-in-a-generation minds. Now, if Cook ends up becoming what Eisner was in his earlier tenure at Disney then it might be truly a sight to see. Personally, I would like to see Apple shed it's niche personality and become a real player in the personal computing world again. Iphones are great for stock prices but opportunities for future innovation are limited unless they can dramatically change the way we use our phones. Microsoft needs some competition with some real money behind it, and Linux will never fit the bill on those terms.

 

[Noo]

Tim cook and Steve balmer need to be kicked out the door.

 

[desura]

Is Brin involved in Google's acquisitions? And how much did they end up losing on Motorola Mobility? I wouldn't cite Zuckerberg as a positive example, the WhatsApp purchase smells like Dot Com Bomb.

Apple's purchase of PA Semi has paid off very well. It's hard to find such bargains in the current market, so I don't have a problem with Apple's patient approach looking for base hits instead of home runs.

I do agree that the cash hoard is ridiculous but the truth there is that the vast majority of it is overseas and they won't move it unless there's a federal tax holiday. Most of the domestic cash is tied up for distributions to shareholders IIRC, so at least that props up the EPS for a while (see IBM).

Well, sometimes risks don't pan out.

Where, exactly, is most of Apple's cash? They have like 20 billion in the USA, and the rest scattered...at the very least they should be furiously reinvesting their Asian profits into buying manufacturing capacity.

 

[amyklai]

...at the very least they should be furiously reinvesting their Asian profits into buying manufacturing capacity.

They don't build the devices, Foxconn does. Do you suggest Apple should create their own production plants instead of using Foxconn?

 

[desura]

They don't build the devices, Foxconn does. Do you suggest Apple should create their own production plants instead of using Foxconn?

They should be slowly acquiring these companies I believe.

 

[Venomous]

Steve's last email to his top 100 basically said, further lock consumers into the apple ecosystem and use the PC/MAC simply as a "hub". This would further explain the lacking of the new macpro and fcxp. I think apple is simply trading business hardware for consumer hardware that will guarantee them a rollover upgrade of the consumers inventory.

Without Jobs, Apples success will be superseded by others.

 

[Rottie]

I think Woz and Bill Gates should run Apple if Tim Cook cannot do his job as CEO.

 

[gevorg]

Tim Cook is perfect for Apple. Thanks to Tim, Apple started paying multi-billion dollar dividends, a massive stock re-purchase program and even allowed another stock split. He can milk the iPhone/iPad success for at least another 3 years (you want iPhone Pro and iPad Ultramini, right?), and at relatively high margins.

Signed,
Wall Street

 

[mikegg]

An executive from Apple who worked directly with Jobs and Cook started working at my company not too long ago. I had a conversation with him and asked him if he thought Apple could survive without Jobs. He said absolutely not and mentioned that Jobs laid out a 5 year roadmap for the company. Cook is just executing that roadmap. He didn't believe that Cook could continue to grow Apple.

My 2 cents.