After nearly 15 years at the helm of one of the world's biggest companies, Tim Cook is set to step down as the Apple CEO and will be replaced by John Ternus. Cook is set to assume the role of executive chairman, handing over day-to-day operational leadership at the hands of Ternus.
Since taking over leadership from Steve Jobs in 2011, Cook oversaw major developments and product launches during his time at Apple, consolidating the company's leadership in the market and helping it emerge as the largest company in the world, up until the unprecedented rise of a certain Nvidia.
How did Apple stock perform under Cook?
When Cook initially became the CEO, Apple's approximate market capitalisation stood at $350 billion, with the stock hovering around the $13 mark in August, 2011.
After initially making a slow start, mired with controversies over certain products including iPhone 6's bendgate, the Apple stock showcased unprecedented growth, thanks to the sheer number of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which remain the most sold iPhone models in the history, to this day.
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Up until early 2020 and just before the pandemic, Apple stock hovered around the $60-70 mark, coinciding with the company's next big product innovation: A self-made M-series processors.
An M1-powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro series laptops instantly became trailblazers in the market. Rocking the ARM architecture, these laptops were light, thin and offered unmatched battery backup, making them the undisputed leader of their market segments. This also marked the departure of Apple's reliance on Intel chips for their Macs.
Within a year, the Apple stock jumped as much as $150 in August 2021, marking more than a 13x increase in share price in Cook's then ten-year term as CEO.
Apple consolidated their market position further since, with iPhones penetrating more developing economies such as India, Indonesia while MacBook Air continued to dominate the laptop segment. Apple also doubled down on their other products, including the Apple Watch, iPads, iMacs, among others. Apple has also penetrated the low-cost laptop market with the launch of MacBook Neo.
As a result, the stock has doubled in the last five years, jumping from $150 levels in April 2021 to $273, the last close before Apple announced the exit of Tim Cook. In this very day, Apple's total market capitalisation stands at over $4 trillion.
That means Cook has been beneficial not only operationally for Apple but also to its investors, steering a $350 billion tech trailblazer and turning it into a $4 trillion giant. During this period, the share price saw a jump of 21x, making Cook a valuable asset for investors.
ALSO READ: Apple CEO Change: Tim Cook To Become Executive Chairman, John Ternus Named Successor
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