Tim Cook Congratulates Apple Employees on Record Quarter, Announces Town Hall Meeting Today

[MacRumors]

Following yesterday's record-breaking earnings numbers for the first fiscal quarter of 2013 that still fell short of analyst expectations, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent out an email to employees (via 9to5Mac) congratulating them on the performance and announcing an employees-only town hall meeting scheduled for today.

Team,

We've just reported another record setting quarter, thanks to everyone's incredible hard work and focus. We sold over 75 million iOS devices in the holiday quarter alone, which is a testament to the strength of Apple's innovation. Please join me for an employee communications meeting tomorrow at 10 a.m. Pacific time in the auditorium of De Anza 3. We've created a space on AppleWeb where you can submit your questions in advance, and we'll do our best to answer as many of them as we can during the meeting. The meeting will be broadcast live throughout Cupertino and at many other Apple locations. Please check AppleWeb for details.

Tim

Apple has held similar meetings in the past, with discussion at last year's meeting reportedly focusing on the company's philanthropy and also including an announcement of a new hardware discount program for company employees.

Article Link: Tim Cook Congratulates Apple Employees on Record Quarter, Announces Town Hall Meeting Today

[Jacquesvw]

If I can get $1 for every time they use the word innovation I will be richer than Apple.

Every time an Apple employee opens his or her mouth they just have to force the word innovation in there somewhere...

[sulpfiction]

Congrats guys! We're rich.

[Chupa Chupa]

BTW "Tim Cook" is the modern day name for "Nero."

[KdParker]

Congrats on a good year for Apple....

Hope there are more innovations coming this year to keep the growth going.

[ghostface147]

Releasing 6.1 and 10.8.3 today?

[iAco]

They had a winning quarter-over-quarter for a while now. How come the congratulations comes now? Oh snap! It's because Apple's stock is heading south and it will be the last stunning quarter from Apple for a while.

What a way to juice your employees.

Too bad in the end Google will dominate the world with marketshare and data and services that are just a little more useful then hardware build by folks with OCD. But don't get me wrong, I love the shiny toys!

[HenryDJP]

I really don't understand why the stocks have dropped so dramatically if Apple reported a record breaking quarter?

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by iAco

They had a winning quarter-over-quarter for a while now. How come the congratulations comes now? Oh snap! It's because Apple's stock is heading towards the ****tter and it will be the last stunning quarter from Apple for a while.

What a way to juice your employees.

Too bad in the end Google will dominate the world with marketshare and data and services that are just a little more useful then hardware build by folks with OCD. But don't get me wrong, I love the shiny toys!

In a way, yes. I'm guessing many of these employees hold stock options that are quickly becoming worthless because the option price exceeds the stock price. That's a killer for motivation, so start the sweet "family" talk to make them feel guilty for thinking about putting a foot in the job market.

[tdream]

The emperor has no clothes.... shhh.....

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by HenryDJP

I really don't understand why the stocks have dropped so dramatically if Apple reported a record breaking quarter?

Simple... Apple didn't meet sales targets, esp on iPhone 5. Profit margin was down. Investors don't see anything to fuel additional growth. Shorter: Apple needs a new "big thing" product for the stock to break out on the upside again. Cook needs to deliver.

[Asclepio]

Originally Posted by HenryDJP

I really don't understand why the stocks have dropped so dramatically if Apple reported a record breaking quarter?

beacuse they know their results are not very "credible" ,tricky calculation of sells.
... and the prospect of their products is very icloudy.
sorry for my eng

[needfx]

Team,

You're the A-Team,

Tim

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by HenryDJP

I really don't understand why the stocks have dropped so dramatically if Apple reported a record breaking quarter?

It's because profits have remained flat. They made more gross, but due to expenditures elsewhere, they only brought in roughly the same amount of profit this quarter as they did last.

Wall Street stocks are based upon a mix of how much profit you're raking in, and the potential for expansion later. Investors expect year after year growth. If it doesn't happen, everyone gets all pouty, and your stocks degrade.

It's hardly doom and gloom. If anything, I've always thought Apple were a bit overvalued. Yeah, they make great stuff, changed the world, blah blah blah, but considering the small amount of products they make, and the inevitable evening out of the iPad/iPhone line to the usual tech upgrade grind, a knock to their stocks was bound to happen sooner or later.

[Shadowpig]

Originally Posted by Jacquesvw

If I can get $1 for every time they use the word innovation I will be richer than Apple.

Every time an Apple employee opens his or her mouth they just have to force the word innovation in there somewhere...

Try being in education. The word innovation is used constantly, even as stupid as it seems in people titles.

[bbeagle]

Originally Posted by HenryDJP

I really don't understand why the stocks have dropped so dramatically if Apple reported a record breaking quarter?

A good company is one that makes good products, makes money, doesn't lay off employees, and has happy employees.

The stock market doesn't think so. They think a good company is one who projects astronomical growth for the future irregardless of whether they have a sound business plan that makes sense, and irregardless of how much money they are making TODAY. It's all smoke, mirrors and HOPE.

Good, solid companies are shunned, because why put your money into something steady and make 5% on your money year over year? Let's bet the farm and make 100-200% every 3 months! Get rich quick!

That's the sad state of the stock market now.

[Popeye206]

Originally Posted by Asclepio

beacuse they know their results are not very "credible" ,tricky calculation of sells.
... and the prospect of their products is very icloudy.
sorry for my eng

What???? OMG... it's simple... record quarter, but profits we're basically flat... investors wanted to see continued amazing year over year growth in profits too and that was not there. So, the stock plummeted. There's nothing "tricky" about how they report their sales.

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by Renzatic

It's because profits have remained flat. They made more gross, but due to expenditures elsewhere, they only brought in roughly the same amount of profit this quarter as they did last.

Wall Street stocks are based upon a mix of how much profit you're raking in, and the potential for expansion later. Investors expect year after year growth. If it doesn't happen, everyone gets all pouty, and your stocks degrade.

It's hardly doom and gloom. If anything, I've always thought Apple were a bit overvalued. Yeah, they make great stuff, changed the world, blah blah blah, but considering the small amount of products they make, and the inevitable evening out of the iPad/iPhone line to the usual tech upgrade grind, a knock to their stocks was bound to happen sooner or later.

Unless of course you're Amazon. Then you don't have to bring in any profit at all and your stock jumps 6% the next day. I keep wondering how long Wall Street will continue to push up Amazon's share price on the hope of profits in the future.

[crackbookpro]

The unfortunate things is - Apple has to make a change. They have to offer a cheaper iPhone now, because Android has started to saturate the market through cheap adoption of cheap smart phones.

I really wish Apple never signed the 4-5yr exclusive with AT&T way back in '07... it only gave way to this now. This is 5 years in the making now...

GOOGLE IS A BUNCH OF POSERS!

Now, Apple has to make a cheap iPhone for the masses... just you all wait. I hope Tim mentions this to his fell Appleinions... SJ would be pissed if here now, and somehow get the market back in his favor - Android is gaining momentum.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by bbeagle

A good company is one that makes good products, makes money, doesn't lay off employees, and has happy employees.

The stock market doesn't think so. They think a good company is one who projects astronomical growth for the future irregardless of whether they have a sound business plan that makes sense, and irregardless of how much money they are making TODAY. It's all smoke, mirrors and HOPE.

Good, solid companies are shunned, because why put your money into something steady and make 5% on your money year over year? Let's bet the farm and make 100-200% every 3 months! Get rich quick!

That's the sad state of the stock market now.

Right now Apple has a market caps of $462bn. Apple has $137bn in cash, and $13.1bn profit in the last quarter. So the business excluding cash is valued at $325bn (462 - 137), which is just 25 quarters of profit. Six and a quarter years. That's ridiculously low. Even with zero growth, 6.25 years is ridiculous.

[Newton70]

They need to increase their dividend and share buy back program beyond the current levels. Apple doesn't have a history of making large acquisitions so they should return more of that money to shareholders. I believe in having a fortress-like balance sheet, but the amount of cash they are holding and not returning to investors is criminal. This wasn't an issue to many shareholders when the share price was on a strong upward trend, but it certainly is now.

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by bbeagle

A good company is one that makes good products, makes money, doesn't lay off employees, and has happy employees.

The stock market doesn't think so. They think a good company is one who projects astronomical growth for the future irregardless of whether they have a sound business plan that makes sense, and irregardless of how much money they are making TODAY. It's all smoke, mirrors and HOPE.

Good, solid companies are shunned, because why put your money into something steady and make 5% on your money year over year? Let's bet the farm and make 100-200% every 3 months! Get rich quick!

That's the sad state of the stock market now.

Isn't that the truth. Heck someone here today bragged about selling their Apple stock, buying Nokia and making 60%. Yet Nokia is down over 5% today because of a grim outlook and the fact they're not paying their 2012 dividend. I haven't sold any of my AAPL shares because I'm in it for the long term.

[saturn88]

Apple is lazy and arrogant. New iPhone every 2 years? What a joke.

With 150 billion in cash they should be much more aggressive: innovate, expand product line, deliver faster updates, buy hot companies, get into new markets and services.

A lot companies would kill to get some cash to invest in their businesses: Apple has all the resources to invest into their own business, but instead money stay in Chinese banks.

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by Newton70

They need to increase their dividend and share buy back program beyond the current levels. Apple doesn't have a history of making large acquisitions so they should return more of that money to shareholders. I believe in having a fortress-like balance sheet, but the amount of cash they are holding and not returning to investors is criminal. This wasn't an issue to many shareholders when the share price was on a strong upward trend, but it certainly is now.

Isn't share buy back basically saying they don't know what to do with their cash?

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Originally Posted by HenryDJP

I really don't understand why the stocks have dropped so dramatically if Apple reported a record breaking quarter?

Because stock prices are not so much about how have you done but how much you might do going forward. Beating last year was not all of the expectations. Expectations were to beat last year and beat anyone and everyone best speculations this year... AND lay out a forecast that says growth will far exceed anyone & everyones best speculations going forward.

There always comes a time when the slope of growth on the chart becomes just too steep to maintain. A giant company with centralized, consolidating management instead of decentralized, delegating management (creating lots of little Steves instead of reducing the decision-makers at the top and giving them even more responsibilities) becomes bottlenecked by the maximum production of the few at the top. I suspect Apple is grappling with this right now.

I recall reading time and again that just about everything of consequence at Apple had to go through Jobs. That can work when the company is small. But when you're the biggest company in the world, you need too many decisions made for any one guy (or a handful of guys) to keep pace with the needed growth. I was worried with the recent announcements about Exec departures and consolidation of power & responsibility when I believed (and still do) what Apple needs is delegation and decentralization, leveraging it's "best & brightest people in the world" in a way more suitable for the big company that is Apple now rather than the small/shrinking company it was in 1997.

In very simple and narrow terms: we celebrated when Ive was given the added responsibility of software design. Given the great job he's done with hardware design, it seems like a great idea. But one could also see it like this: he used to be able to give 100% of his focus to hardware design. Now, he might split it- 50% to hardware, 50% to software. If so, hardware gets half the focus it used to get because now he's got to give the other half to software design. The same applies to other consolidations of power & responsibility with other leaders. Is that actually a good thing (when Apple obviously needs more "next big thing" rollouts than less)?

Sure these managers have legions of employees who do most of the work. But the trick is that too much decision-making consolidated at the top can have legions waiting for decisions rather than rolling on with "next big thing" creations. When the very few hold too much of this decision-making responsibility, they are the bottlenecks to ongoing, robust growth.

Apple needed a "next big thing" rollout on par with iPhone (2007) and iPad (2010) last year (2012). That didn't happen. Instead, it was just refinements of old "next big things". There better be something genuinely new (not a thinner, lighter, or different color, old NBT) this year or I suspect AAPL stock will feel even more pain. In short (and IMO), the old NBTs are not strong enough to maintain the growth slope on their own. They need a new NBT (that is not a Mac or new iDevice) to become a major source of new revenues & profits. It needed to hit in 2012 but didn't (and thus AAPL from $700 to about $460 in just the last few months).