Cook's ten years: perhaps a more successful Apple CEO than Jobs

Cook's first decade of leading the world's most valuable company was successful, but the next decade will be difficult.

However slow it is, the "Apple" will fall from the tree. Ten years ago, when Tim Cook took over from founder Steve Jobs, even diehard Apple fans were worried that the company might be destined to go downhill. Without Jobs, Willie Wonka, Apple's chocolate factory was taken over by Cook, a robot that started by integrating global supply chains and reviewing reports. How can such an unattractive person follow the famous vision of Jobs and inspire Apple employees to continue to create "cool" products?

It turns out that Mr. Cook can. On August 24, when he celebrated his tenth anniversary as Apple’s boss, no one raised objections. This is a matter of course. In the technology industry where managers are generally hard to match the founder, he staged an almost greatest succession drama. In fact, from a purely financial point of view, Cook is much more successful as president than Jobs.

Mr. Cook is the president who has created the most shareholder value in history. When he took over from Jobs, Apple had a market value of US$349 billion, and now has a market value of US$2.5 trillion, setting a record for the market value of a listed company. Under his leadership, annual sales rose from US$108 billion in 2011 to US$274 billion last year. Apple's net profit more than doubled to 57 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing Saudi Aramco's profits from oil and becoming the most profitable company in the world. What has received less attention is that under Cook's tenure, Apple's economy (Apple's own annual revenue plus revenue from other companies on its platform) has grown sevenfold to more than $1 trillion.

The dismissed tech giant is still so profitable

 Regulators put the technology giants in hot water, but their stocks will not continue to be sluggish.

In the three days at the end of July, American technology giants performed brilliantly. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Amazon and Facebook thrive in the epidemic, and their latest earnings reports confirm this. In the latest quarter from April to June this year, these five companies achieved total revenues of US$332 billion, an increase of 36% year-on-year, and their earnings were better than expected. Unexpectedly, in addition to Alphabet, the stocks of several companies triggered a wave of selling after their earnings were announced.

This negative reaction embodies the paradox surrounding the major American technology companies. While products are being used more, big technology companies themselves are increasingly disgusted. Encouraged by voters from both parties, regulators and legislators are reviewing every business of big technology companies and threatening to take strong measures to curb their power. Mark Mhaney, an analyst at Evercore ISI, predicts that the drag on the stocks of major technology companies from the regulatory review has reached 10% of the stock prices.