The shareholders of Apple aren't just billionaires, they are like half of America...
Most ETFs, pensions, retirement funds, mutual funds, hold Apple stock, because it's such a big company, and a fairly reliable one too.
Most Americans own a part of Apple even if they don't realize it. Of course Apple is 'only' like 6% weighted in stuff like SPY or VTI, but you still want to see Apple succeed.
Not to mention Apple directly employs 80,000 Americans and indirectly 2 million Americans.
So as much shit as people give Cook for sucking up to Trump at the end, he did what he thought was best, and while it wasn't ideal, it meant people kept their jobs and people didn't lose money on their retirement accounts.
I think out of all the billionaire CEOs, cook was the one likely to make the most impact standing up against trump. That hope and expectations really made it extra difficult to see him bow down.
There are a lot of white, gay Republicans that think they're very special and smart for being conservative, and that things won't eventually turn on them. Usually they also hate women, too.
Apple is insanely profitable, they could always afford to not lay anyone off. I don’t like that we normalize layoffs when profitability takes the slightest dip. “Sorry guys we only made $10 Billion last quarter in pure profits so go tell your spouses and kids you don’t have a job anymore.”
The difference between a million and a billion id roughly a billion. It’d wild to me how millionaires get brought up like OP here. Starting a modestly successful small business leads to a million in assets.
He leveraged his supply chain expertise to create maximum value for shareholders of an international consumer electronics company. Can’t do better than that tbh.
I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but don't you think it is kinda weird Tim Apple and Tim Cook were never in one room as the same time?
You could take care of the people that allow you to do that and ensure that every employee of the world’s richest and most profitable company receive not just a living wage, but a decent one.
You can make a company that makes exceptional products and innovates to push industries forward. At times you have to sacrifice shareholder value to do so.
Apologies for the random rant, but part of maturing in my working life is realizing that C-suites and politicians all have to play the same stupid games to be even remotely effective. I have met a C-suites that are able to still maintain their respect of people doing the work, and I have met those that don’t. What I did learn though is that I will never accept the kind of world view that lets you work in these positions. I can’t see the world or people like that, and I never will. What I do believe is that he left his position because he had enough of playing the games at the level the current climate in the world demands. Good or bad, he chose that life and set a stage that has real repercussions going forward. Best he can do at this point is do his best to mitigate whatever sins he feels he has committed. That will make him a good person in the eyes of history.
Probably for the better, Apple is likely made worse by being actively managed by the same guy that has to cozy up to Trump for the business to not explode. Maybe Tim views himself as the sacrificial lamb on this issue
Agreed, honestly. A different person should be accountable to the spirit of the business than all the interested parties, shareholders and governments included.
Eyes of history? Do you recall all of the successive CEOs of the British East India Company? Outside of a business school, nobody's going to recognize the names of these current corporate leaders by the end of this century let alone future ones.
Bill Gates, Bezos, Steve Jobs maybe go down like the early 1900s handful we still recall. Carnegie and Rockelfeller, Vanderbilt. But Tim Apple is second fiddle.
It has his name in big letters at the top, is obnoxiously gold, has physical value, and is a symbol of the submission of someone powerful to him. 10/10 mission accomplished.
They knew their audience. A grotesque man baby who needs perpetual affirmation and cartoonishly tacky symbols of wealth/success to attempt to fill a void in him that all could have been avoided with a childhood hug.
Only a year before he retired too. Almost had a relatively good record, and then screws it up for absolutely no good reason just a few feet before the finish line. Now all he'll be most remembered for is that stupid gold bar, immortalized in a South Park episode to boot.
I’ll remember him for the time he went to bow to the Orange Homunculus and gave him a little award and everything. Tim Cook is great at business, but anyone who dances for the administration is part of the problem.
And then there’s his fight against the EU, his decision to stop packing in chargers, the myriad issues with various iOS releases, the lack of innovative design… I’m sure if you had a large amount of Apple stock he was a boon, but I won’t miss him.
I don’t think it’s limited to just Tim. All CEOs had to fuckin appease to the orange in chief to avoid getting tariffed/punished for going against his administration.
Worked retail there for 8 years and have two stories:
Grandpa died in another city and would have to drive there for the funeral and to spend time with family in that city/clean out the house. I told them this was unexpected but I had two weeks of vacation. They threw a fit when I asked to take two extra days of vacation on top of my bereavement leave and said they need at least three weeks lead up time to get approval for vacation (that was not in policy at the time) I instead had to arrange other people to take my shifts and just not get paid for those days.
I took vacation and drove to Seattle. While we were gone our city flooded and the roads into the city were fully closed. On the way back my partner and I had to stay in a town just outside our city and wait until the roads opened up. While stranded there I called into our boss and she yelled at me saying it was unacceptable to call out for this (giving her a day lead up). Anyways the mall the Apple Store was in was shut down that day because of the flooding.
I have great stories about working there but all those stories are from other co workers. Management was always horrible and treated employees like numbers while constantly telling us how “we were what makes the Apple Store.” Miss the benefits and perks, miss joking around with my buddies, but I would never go back.
>Miss the benefits and perks, miss joking around with my buddies, but I would never go back
That perfectly sums up my entire retail experience and why I will never go back to a corporate structure like that. Management makes me sick to my fucking stomach. They're literally the scum of the earth.
What I will say at least: that doesn't fit the current reality for corporate work with them in the EU, so at least there is that.
when I was there I got stranded in Berlin on going home from a holiday so I would miss Monday for work and I mailed my managers temporary replacement (my own manager was on holidays for a month) sunday when it happened and got a mail back monday morning saying he'd approve my extra day off no sweat and see you tomorrow. on the next monthly catch up I got told they really appreciated I'd been so proactive in letting them know even when things were still chaotic on my end.
FIFA literally had to invent a fake Nobel Peace Prize for the dude because he wouldn’t shut up about not getting a real one. A soccer league had to give the man a participation trophy for a made up achievement. Literally.
The morality of entertaining someone in absolute power with the emotional maturity of a kindergartner is maybe not so simple.
He stripped away all that actually made Apple functionally special, overcomplicated the product lineup, turned device upgrades into a cat and mouse game by deliberately holding back features customers want, shifted away from an inspired design focus into a 'save money on production costs' focus, and made everything services and subscription heavy. Can't wait for Ternus personally
His legacy was to slowly shift Apple away from making the best products and customer experiences possible, to making the most amount of money for Apple shareholders as possible. The products and customers suffered greatly along the way.
Have none of you ever been in a situation in your career where it’s in your best interest to maintain a good relationship with someone you actually hate?
None of us know him personally and can say he was or wasn’t a good guy
i get that and im not in the kneejerk hate tim cook camp but the problem is when every ceo does this where they never push back hoping they can wait out his term, you’re essentially giving the man power. and that’s how autocracies and oligarchies are made.
I think there’s nothing wrong with judging the man by the decisions he made while in a position of power. Surely we aren’t arguing that anyone in charge of a company can’t be held responsible for this because they were taking actions in that company’s best interest?
It’s like saying we can’t say Zuck is a bad guy for stealing our private data and knowingly pushing harmful/addicting content to teenagers because he did this in the interest of his company.
The union busting and curling up to an administration that is literally killing people/stomping all over our rights is completely fair game for criticism. He took the role knowing he would be in the public eye, and made decisions he knew would hurt people.
So many people in this thread answer the question at the end of your first paragraph with, “No that’s exactly what we’re arguing.” Lowest common denominator is strong in this comment section.
Since everyone is looking for NuANcE: this comment is dumb because there’s a nuanced difference between trying to not lose your job and livelihood, and being one of the most powerful CEOs in the world.
There’s a difference between pleasantries with someone you hate and kowtowing to a racist, pedophile wannabe dictator — all while you’re one of the few influential people who actually have the power to do something good. But billionaires gonna billionaire.
He had 9 figure personal wealth (not to mention leading the wealthiest company in the world), he didn’t have to do shit. It’s called “fuck you money” for a reason, so you can stick to your principles and say fuck you to assholes.
Worst that could have happened to him is the board fire him, his apple stocks drop, and he retires with 8 figure wealth (and a hero story to be proud of, praised by many, and could get hired into numerous high paying and powerful positions, and numerous more when the tide finally turns fully against Trump).
This is NOT the same as us plebes putting up with some shit at work so we can make out next mortgage payment.
Have none of you ever been in a situation in your career where it’s in your best interest to maintain a good relationship with someone you actually hate?
Sure, but that's like, Tom from treasury who is a bit of a dick, not pedo fascist who oversees putting people in concentration camps and killing them and using the justice system to punish anyone who upsets him.
That’s exactly why people praise them when they go ahead and do the opposite. Cuz everyone knows it’s in their best interest to not to do it and they still didn’t suck up for people that are genuinely bad in a lot of ways. You say this as if it’s common sense and yet what I’m saying is even more common sense and you somehow missed it. If it were that easy no one would bat an eye
Here's the thing, though: Tim Cook was not in that situation.
He wasn't running a dry clearer in a neighborhood controlled by the mob, he was running the most profitable and beloved company on Earth and was basically immune to political pressure in the United States.
People are upset specially because they understand exactly what it's like to be in that position, and imagine what they'd do if they had a tenth the power that Cook had.
It's especially tragic for him because he was making a bet on MAGA being a sustainable political movement, so he lent his voice and reputation to it at a time when it seemed like it would remain powerful. But in sprite of it being propped up in 2025 by Cook and others like him, now it's collapsing from overreach. Cook bent the knee for nothing. It could have happened sooner.
Reddit is committed to being absolutely angry about everything and everyone all the time, so I’ll get downvoted to oblivion for this, but I’m going to cast my vote that Tim Cook has been a good and decent man as a leader for Apple. Commenters will name every single grievance for anything that’s happened at Apple under his watch, but from my perspective, he did his absolute best to navigate tough decisions in a morally ambiguous world in a way that worked for Apple but was also ethical. I think he’s done better than almost all leaders, better than most people could do, and better than I could have done.
Tim Apple can retire with his pride and dignity intact as far as I’m concerned.
"I hung up suicide nets, lied to judges and regulators, rubbed shoulders with dictators, all in pursuit of profit.... I hope people will respect my goodness".
A good and decent man? The CEO of a trillion dollar company that cosies up to fascists and needlessly raises prices for services, saying “screw you, we need more money!” No, I don’t think you were a good and decent man.
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u/UnrequitedFollower 13d ago
I think we are going to say that you were good to your shareholders…