One more thing… Tim Cook is about to retire

It has been 14 years since Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, replaced the company’s founder, Steve Jobs, a legendary figure, and then led the company to even greater financial heights. Now, reports are emerging that Cook is considering retiring next year.

Apple is “intensifying succession planning efforts” in light of the possible departure of the company’s CEO, Tim Cooksays .

The executive celebrated his 65th birthday this month and is preparing to “pass on the testimony” to a new leader of the company, details the newspaper.

In 2023, on a podcast At Your ServiceTim Cook revealed to the British singer Dua Lipa that an iconic tech giant tem “very detailed succession plans”.

Cook’s eventual departure and replacement by a new CEO comes at a critical time for the company behind the Macintosh and iPhone, which was once the most valuable brand — and with the highest valuation on the stock exchange — of the world.

Although during Cook’s leadership the company recorded an impressive increase in market valuation, from 350 billion to 4 billion of dollars, Apple has recently faced difficulties to enter new product categories and lagged behind the competition in the AI ​​racehighlights the Financial Times.

These challenges could lead Cook to “consider leaving and letting new blood take over”, writes . According to , Cook should maintain some connection to Apple, eventually joining the board of directors.

Also complications such as customs tariffs imposed by the US president, Donald Trumpthe countries where Apple manufactures its products may weigh in on the decision.

However, Apple continues to record “an unprecedented success”, having recently announced quarterly results exceeding 100 billion of dollars — which means that Cook’s successor “will have a big challenge ahead of him.”

What do analysts say?

Tim Cook “He has been CEO of Apple longer than Steve Jobs ever been,” he commented. M.G. Sieglerfrom the . Jobs will have, in part, paved the way for Cook’s success.

“All he had to do was execute the vision left by Jobs,” but that doesn’t diminish Cook’s merits, says Siegler. “AND was probably the best person for this task throughout the world.”

Now, however, Apple’s failures in the area of ​​Artificial Intelligence show that the company “clearly needs changes. This makes it quite clear that Cook will retire soon. The question is just when”, concludes the analyst.

“We are witnessing the decline of star CEOs”, considers the analyst Ben Berkowitzfrom , for whom Tim Cook, along with Bob IgerCEO of Disney, and Doug McMillonfrom Walmart, are “icons of the business world who are preparing to leave the scene”.

Their planned exits take place at a “delicate moment for the economy” and involve companies that influence all aspects of everyday lifesays Berkowitz, who predicts that the transitions at the top of these emblematic corporations will make “a 2026 that was already expected to be turbulent” even more uncertain.

According to , the revelation of Tim Cook’s retirement plans seems like a “deliberate test of market reactionApple’s board will likely want to “gauge investor response” to Cook’s departure.

It is likely that Cook has “his eye on retirement”, but his loyalty to Apple means he will only leave “when the market is ready for it”, says 9to5Mac.

Just one more thing…

So, who’s next? John Ternussenior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple, is the name “most frequently mentioned” to succeed Cook, says .

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak e Ronald Wayne. However, during the first years, none of the founders, considered inexperienced and more focused on the technological aspect, managed the company that revolutionized the world with the Macintosh, iTunes and the iPhone.

Apple’s first CEO was Michael Scottwho led the company until 1981. Mike Markkula (81-83), John Sculley (83-93) and Michael Spindler (03-96) followed. Despite some successes, such as the launch of the PowerPC, Spindler had resounding failures, which led the company to a drop in valuation, and was replaced, in 1996, by Gil Amelio.

Amelio’s reign at the helm of Apple, from just one yearit was as short as black were the times during this period for the companywhich reached the lowest point of stock market appreciation in 12 years.

Em 1997, Steve Jobswhich had been removed from the board of directors Apple in 1986 after a long power war with John Sculleyand had left the company to found NeXT and Pixar, returned to the company he had founded and assumed the role of CEO, which he held until his death in 2011.

Jobs brings from NeXT an operating system that is now the basis of macOS X, many new ideas, and a indomitable will to continue to change the world. The rest… is the story we know.