Former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO John Sculley is convinced that he can disrupt the world of the iPhone-maker and other big names in the industry like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. by offering affordable smartphones in emerging markets.
The comment came from the former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) boss who also ran PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) in an interview on Bloomberg Television which also touched on startups. The interview also featured Jonathan Golub, RBC Capital Markets chief U.S. market strategist.
During the interview, Sculley was asked about how Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook has a new challenge in scalability compared to the company’s cofounder, Steve Jobs, and him who also controlled the company. Sculley said that Cook is more focused on continuing the vision of Jobs. This is different from what Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Larry Page is doing, he added, which is looking for the next big thing in the industry. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), he said, will probably succeed in this. Sculley explained:
“I think Tim Cook is focusing on being able to continue the vision that Steve Jobs had. [This is] very different than what Larry Page is doing at Google. Larry Page is still out there looking for the next really big creative leap. He’s got so much capital coming in on this cash machine of ads that he is able to place a lot of bets he doesn’t have to build a small number of beautiful products like Tim Cook does. He can place a lot of bets and I think it’s probably going to happen at Google.”
Meanwhile, the former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO also talked about how he is active this year in selling and acquiring companies. It was noted that Sculley now runs his own firm, John Sculley Ventures, which looks into opportunities like this. Asked to elaborate on where he is placing his bets, Sculley said:
“I’m very active this year in selling companies. [It’s a] great market to sell companies. We’re very active [in] buying companies over in Asia. We bought two companies this year over there. We intend to have more M&A transactions this year. It’s a great time building new companies…Well, we just started a business in India that I’ll be back over on in a couple of weeks which is we’re starting our own smartphone business. [It’s] called Obi Mobile. Why? Because we saw that we could sell products that were really very high quality at a disruptive price versus the international brands like Apple and Samsung. This touches a part of the market that just can’t afford the Apple products or the Samsung products. We’re going to take that throughout all the emerging markets.
Watch the video below where startups and changes in the industry were also discussed.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) investors include the hedge funds Bridgewater Associates managed by Ray Dalio and Light Street Capital managed by Glen Kacher. Those firms reported, by the end of March, stakes that were made up of 43,271 and 40,538 shares respectively.
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