GoKawiilWhile it had long been expected that John Turnus would succeed Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO, a key detail in the transition process shows that the company can still keep things under wraps when it counts. Here’s why.
Final decision kept under wraps for days
When news broke yesterday that Tim Cook would be stepping down as Apple’s CEO on September 1, to be succeeded by John Ternus, most 9to5Mac readers were likely surprised by the timing of the announcement, but not by the news itself.
That’s because the possibility of Ternus succeeding Cook as Apple’s next CEO had been thoroughly leaked, reported, examined, discussed, and foreshadowed for quite a while.
Last November, for instance, The Financial Times reported that, based on their sources, Apple’s board and senior executives had “recently intensified” the company’s succession planning, adding that while “no final decision” had been made in favor of Ternus, Cook could step down “as soon as next year”.
A few days after that, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported on his Power On newsletter that he believed this story “was simply false,” stressing that “[a] respected publication should only predict the CEO transition date for a company of Apple’s scale with a high level of confidence”.
From Power On:
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.
To be crystal clear, this is absolutely not a knock on Gurman, whose track record speaks for itself. Run this in a simulation again, and it might very well have been an FT miss and a Bloomberg hit. And it’s worth noting that the actual transition will only take place on September 1.
In fact, that is the point. These very different reports show how Apple worked to keep things under wraps, to the point of preventing even some of the industry’s most well-sourced journalists from converging on a clear timeline.
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