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| Apple could face a lawsuit over naive comments from Cook |
Apple has been ordered to face a class action lawsuit filed by the company's shareholders accusing CEO Tim Cook of hiding the sluggish iPhone order in China, causing billions in losses for investors.
In Wednesday's ruling, US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said: Shareholders managed by the UK Pension Fund could be suspended by Cook on November 1, 2018. Filing a lawsuit - he says - although Apple is under selling pressure in some emerging markets - "I wouldn't classify China this way."
Apple urged its suppliers to cut production days after Cook's speech. On January 2, 2019, Apple unexpectedly lowered its quarterly revenue forecast to $ 9 billion. Cook attributed this to economic pressures. China because of trade tensions between China and the United States.
The lower sales forecast is Apple's first sales forecast since the iPhone launched in 2007. The next day, Apple's stock price fell 10%, resulting in a loss of $ 74 billion. In the market value.
Apple and Cook said: There is no evidence that they cheated or attempted to deceive the complainant.
"Contributors reasonably claim that Cook's comments on the attractiveness of analysts to China are fundamentally false and misleading," Rogers said in the 23-page decision.
Even assuming that Cook was ignorant of the details of the "disruptive brand" the company had begun to see in China, she said, he was "naively ignoring" trade tensions and their potential impact on Apple.
Rogers wrote that the plaintiff came to a "convincing conclusion" that Cook was aware of the risks when discussing China's problems on a conference call with analysts. `` The convincing conclusion is that Cook was neither innocent nor careless.