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Tim Cook and UK Prime Minister Theresa May Discuss Apple's Presence in Country Amid Brexit [Update]

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Continuing on his lengthy European tour today, Apple CEO Tim Cook has now stopped in London and had a chat with UK Prime Minister Theresa May. According to a spokesperson for May speaking with Business Insider, the meeting focused on Apple's continued investment in the United Kingdom amid the recent turmoil surrounding Brexit. Overall, the meeting was said to have been "a very positive and useful discussion."

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"It was a meeting with the prime minister. It was a very positive and useful discussion. Apple have made a recent announcement about their investment in the UK and they had a conversation around that and the importance of government and business on digital skills which going forward will clearly be a huge part of the future industry. It was a chance for the prime minister to outline her plans for negotiating our EU exit. It was also a chance for her to reiterate and welcome Apple's investment in the UK."
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The meeting took place at Downing Street at 10AM local time today, and followed Cook's visiting of locations including Marseille, Paris, Vreden, Berlin, and Glasgow. On the Vreden, Germany leg of his trip that took place earlier this week, the Apple CEO even met with Dula, a furniture manufacturer that works with Apple to create some of the furniture and hardware used in Apple's retail stores.

Europe is Apple's second largest market in terms of revenue, and like all other territories the company continues to expand its presence in the area. Last September, it was announced that Apple was working on building a new UK headquarters in London's Battersea Power Station, expected to be complete by 2021. The UK is expected to leave the European Union by 2019, so it appears Cook is using his European trip to prepare Apple for the upcoming shift in UK business and politics happening over the next few years.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Update: Tim Cook tweeted that he met with the mayor of London today and that he is "incredibly excited about Apple's future in London."

Great to meet @MayorofLondon today. We are incredibly excited about Apple's future in London and the 🇬🇧! https://t.co/pOYdisFAit - Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 9, 2017
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Cook also visited Woodberry Down Primary School while on his trip in London.

Article Link: Tim Cook and UK Prime Minister Theresa May Discuss Apple's Presence in Country Amid Brexit [Update]
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/09/tim-cook-theresa-may-brexit/
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I sense posts coming from people that don't understand that meeting with someone doesn't mean you support them or agree with their opinions. As an important market for Apple this meeting makes sense.
 
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Tim: give us tax benefits or we will leave U.K.
May: ....
 
Porco said:
I hope Tim had a private word about how insane the Snoopers' Charter is. And I hope Theresa had a private word about how insane the huge price increases on ancient computers are.
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1. There's no indication that Apple will fork their software to compromise security for the UK or anyone else.

2. The PM shouldn't be engaging in price-fixing of any private company. Apple sells for what the market will bear, and they aren't the only brand around.
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matt3526 said:
Given the pound's rise against the dollar since January they should discuss Timmy lowering the price of Apple stuff too.
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Computer prices don't rise and fall day-by-day like petroleum. Once the pound is stable for longer than a month perhaps it would make sense to revisit the exchange rate and adjust accordingly.
 
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Kaibelf said:
1. There's no indication that Apple will fork their software to compromise security for the UK or anyone else.

2. The PM shouldn't be engaging in price-fixing of any private company. Apple sells for what the market will bear, and they aren't the only brand around.
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1. I didn't say they would?! What an odd thing to say. The Snoopers' Charter isn't really something within Apple's control, but Cook has expressed concerns about individuals' privacy and data. As such it might be something he could express a view on.

2. I didn't say she should?! Expressing concern for consumers being charged at heavily increased prices for ageing technology not updated in years would be entirely legitimate and does not equate to price-fixing in any way. More like sensible advice...

I don't actually expect either of them said anything about either issue anyway.
 
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Apple is headquartered in Ireland, its revenues are channelled to nowhere land, as pointed out in the recent investigations on taxes, UK customers will still be there so probably not much to change or consider changing.
 
Shaun said:
Apple already avoids paying it's fair share of corporation tax in the UK so we can hardly give them a tax break.
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Aple definitely pays its fair share of corporate tax and, after Brexit, the UK has all incentives to offer Apple a generous tax agreement.
 
He's actually visited quite a few places around the UK this week. I wonder if that was just because he was heading this way for his Doctorate of UoG or if they'd planned a political/business trip to the UK anyway.

She should have told him to stop hiking prices using Brexit as an excuse!
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Kaibelf said:
Once the pound is stable for longer than a month perhaps it would make sense to revisit the exchange rate and adjust accordingly.
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But they won't. I can't see Apple 'readjusting' prices for some time. The pound will improve and they'll just hope people forget they hiked their prices when it was low, win-win for them.
 
Kaibelf said:
Computer prices don't rise and fall day-by-day like petroleum. Once the pound is stable for longer than a month perhaps it would make sense to revisit the exchange rate and adjust accordingly.
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Despite the fools who post about the so called great performance of the pound it has still tanked since June last year. $1.25 gets £1 now compared to $1.47 in June. It has fluctuated around 1.20-1.26 i.e. a few cents. Prices would not change at all if they revisited them.
 
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daveak said:
Despite the fools who post about the so called great performance of the pound it has still tanked since June last year. $1.25 gets £1 now compared to $1.47 in June. It has fluctuated around 1.20-1.26 i.e. a few cents. Prices would not change at all if they revisited them.
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On that we agree.
 
matt3526 said:
Given the pound's rise against the dollar since January they should discuss Timmy lowering the price of Apple stuff too.
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Sorry? What?

A pound is worth $1.25 which is as low as it's been for many many years. The fact that it popped up three cents over the last three months is pretty blooming irrelevant.

Tim came to buy some office space with plenty of room for expansion. Why? Because it's never been so cheap for Americans to buy Britain.
 
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Shaun said:
Apple already avoids paying it's fair share of corporation tax in the UK so we can hardly give them a tax break.
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Apple pays whatever it has to pay. Taxes are paid by what is legal and not what is FAIR.

All corporations use every available strategy to pay as little in taxes as possible.

The lawmakers are the problem, not the tax payers. Sometimes the tax code is not
clear and has to be "interpreted"

This circus will NEVER change!

May upset you, but a waste of time! Let's move on!
 
Thunderhawks said:
Apple pays whatever it has to pay. Taxes are paid by what is legal and not what is FAIR.

All corporations use every available strategy to pay as little in taxes as possible.

The lawmakers are the problem, not the tax payers. Sometimes the tax code is not
clear and has to be "interpreted"

This circus will NEVER change!

May upset you, but a waste of time! Let's move on!
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I agree the UK government should close all the tax loopholes and slap Apple with a whopping great tax bill. That would make me very happy.

Apple claims to be a force for good in the world when in reality they're just another greedy, money grabbing, tax dodging evil corporate. If they want to behave like that then they should stop pretending to take the moral high ground.
 
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