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Apple CEO Tim Cook takes stand in antitrust trial

May 22, 2021 at 02:53 pm EDT

Apple CEO Tim Cook took the witness stand Friday for more than two hours in defense of the way his company runs the popular App Store.

Apple is being sued in federal court by Epic Games, the maker of the "Fortnite" video game, which claims Apple acts anticompetitively by only allowing Apple approved apps access to the 1 billion iPhones around the world and then forcing developers to use Apple's in-app payment system, which takes up to a 30 percent cut of sales.

In Cook's testimony, his most extensive public comments on the App Store - which anchors Apple's $54 billion services business, he told the court that threats to iPhone security and privacy required tight control of the App Store.

Apple has sought to persuade the judge presiding over the antitrust trial that all the tech giant's rules for app developers are aimed at keeping customer data private and safe from malware.

But Cook did get some pushback from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who questioned Cook about the profits Apple reaps from game developers, which she said helped subsidize other apps and "appear to be disproportionate."

Apple is facing backlash from app makers including music service Spotify, European regulators, and some U.S. politicians, who claim the $2 trillion tech company has become too big and is using its size to squash the competition.

Stocks mentioned in the article

	Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
	APPLE INC.	165.8 USD	+0.51%	-3.97%	2,561B
	SPOTIFY TECHNOLOGY S.A.	272.2 USD	-1.30%	-6.29%	53.99B

Tim Cook

Timothy D. Cook is, since the resignation of Steve Jobs August 24, 2011, the CEO of Apple Inc.

Tim Cook grew up in Alabama. His father worked in a shipyard and his mother was a housewife. Graduated in 1982 from Auburn University in Alabama in industrial engineering, he obtained his MBA in 1988 at Duke University in North Carolina, one of the most prestigious American universities.

Tim Cook has worked for 12 years at IBM, where he supervised the production and distribution in North America and Latin America. Then, he joined Compaq and became vice president in charge of the production, the procurement and the inventory management.

Steve Jobs poached himself Tim Cook at Compaq in 1997. Tim Cook joined Apple in March 1998, a year after the return of Steve Jobs at the helm. Under the authority of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook is responsible of the supply chain managing: sales, support, customer services. He works for all markets where the company is present.
Tim Cook puts in place a strategy: the company must reduce its products range and the number of distributors and resellers. Another strategy initiated by Tim Cook: subcontracting in Asia. Tim Cook is the man of the relocation in the company.

In 2000, Tim Cook became director of international sales, and in 2004 he took head of the Macintosh division, which is responsible of MacBook, MacBook Pro and iMac.
Since that day, Mac sales are constantly raising. Tim Cook knows how to sell. These excellent results allow him to evolve in the company. In 2007 Tim Cook became Chief Operating Officer of the company.

In 2004, when Steve Jobs was convalescing after a surgery against a pancreatic cancer, Tim Cook replaced him for two years. In 2009, Steve Jobs takes leave for a liver transplant; Tim Cook is CEO during several months. In January 2011, even if he is on the sick list, Steve Jobs is always CEO but Tim Cook is at the helm of the company daily.

Tim Cook is a brilliant man and very intelligent. Less impulsive than his predecessor, he can seem emotionally detached and implacable. This is a quiet man who does very few public appearances.

Tim Cook is on the Board of Directors of Nike, where he took lessons in marketing in contact with Phil Knight, the founder of Nike.

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