Financial Times: ‘Apple Intensifies Succession Planning for CEO Tim Cook’ ⇥ ft.com

Tim Bradshaw, Stephen Morris, Michael Acton, and Daniel Thomas, Financial Times:

Apple is stepping up its succession planning efforts, as it prepares for Tim Cook to step down as chief executive as soon as next year.

I do not doubt this story overall. It was published at an advantageous time for Apple, too, on a Friday after the stock market closed. The rumoured timeline is real weird, though. “As soon as next year” makes it sound like Cook’s retirement may still be far off, but a few paragraphs later, it is basically around the corner:

The company is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, which covers the critical holiday period.

An announcement early in the year would give its new leadership team time to settle in ahead of its big annual keynote events, its developer conference in June and its iPhone launch in September, the people said.

Cook is Apple’s longest-serving CEO. If the Times’ report is true and his departure is imminent, he leaves the company in a politically difficult state, and rich beyond the wildest predictions of anyone circa 2011.