Musk Denies Wanting To Be Apple CEO; Slams IPhone Maker For Monopolization
A recently published book by Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins claimed Elon Musk wanted to become the CEO of Apple Inc (AAPL) back in 2016. However, Musk has denied that claim on Twitter on Friday.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk allegedly wanted Apple to acquire Tesla. In a phone call with Apple CEO Tim Cook, he laid down the groundrules as he wanted to be the CEO of the iPhone maker.
According to Higgins’ book, Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk and the Bet of the Century, “According to a former aide who heard (Musk’s) retelling of the exchange,” Cook agreed to buy Tesla but when Musk said that he wanted to be the chief of Apple, Cook said “F**k you” and disconnected.
Musk took to Twitter to denounce the second part of the story. “Cook & I have never spoken or written to each other ever.
“There was a point where I requested to meet with Cook to talk about Apple buying Tesla. There were no conditions of acquisition proposed whatsoever. He refused to meet. Tesla was worth about 6% of today’s value,” wrote Musk in his tweet.
When asked for his reaction, Cook’s office referred to a previously published interview where the Apple head said, “You know, I’ve never spoken to Elon, although I have great admiration and respect for the company he’s built.”
Musk doubled down on Higgins with another tweet calling Higgins’ book “false and boring”. “Higgins managed to make his book both false *and* boring,” added the billionaire entrepreneur.
A note added by the author at the end of the book read, “(Musk) was given numerous opportunities to comment on the stories, facts, and characterizations presented in these pages. Without pointing to any specific inaccuracies, he offered simply this: ‘Most, but not all, of what you read in this book is nonsense.'”
In a completely unrelated incident, Musk sided with Epic Games in an ongoing legal battle with Apple. Through another tweet on Friday, Musk said, “Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right.”
Epic Games, makers of Fortnite, got entangled in a legal battle with Apple last summer accusing it of monopolizing the market through its steep fee. The lawsuit was filed against Apple charging the company over 30% for the in-app purchases made and also not allowing the apps to use outside payment options.
Tim Sweeney, the CEO and Founder of Epic and a long-time critic of Apple’s business policy weighed in tweeting, “The Apple Tax is far more pernicious than many realize. “It only applies to digital goods accessible on iOS”, they say — but in the future all physical goods will have a digital presence, and Apple will tax and gatekeep world commerce. Apple must be stopped.”
The ruling is set to take place next month.
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