Abstract:
As John Ternus continues to promote leadership adjustments after taking over as Apple's CEO, Apple has once again made important personnel changes to its core management team. The latest news shows that Apple has appointed a new head of mergers and acquisitions business, and at the same time rearranged the service business and App Store management.
It is reported that Apple has appointed Steve Smith as the company’s head of M&A and corporate development. Smith previously served in Apple's corporate development department for a long time and was considered a senior M&A executive within the company. He was also a long-time deputy to former M&A chief Adrian Perica. After this promotion, Smith will report to Apple Chief Financial Officer Kevin Parekh.
Perica has been responsible for Apple's M&A business for more than a decade. Under his leadership, Apple completed a number of key acquisitions, including strategic investments and integrations in many companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, chips, software and services, making mergers and acquisitions an important part of Apple's technology layout.
After this adjustment, Perica will no longer be responsible for mergers and acquisitions, but will devote more energy to Apple’s services business. Since 2023, he has been responsible for iCloud, Fitness+ and Apple News business segments. After the adjustment is completed, he will assume more important responsibilities in the services department and report directly to Eddie Cue, Apple's head of services.
According to reports, in Apple’s internal discussions on future management succession issues, Perica is considered one of the important successors in the services business. Many employees familiar with the situation believe that Perica and Oliver Shuther, who oversees Apple Music, are the leading candidates to succeed Cue in the future. Another possibility that has been discussed internally at Apple is to split the business areas Cue is currently responsible for in the future and run them by different executives.
In addition to adjustments to its M&A business, Apple also announced the promotion of Carson Oliver to Vice President of the App Store. Oliver will also report to Cue.
The App Store was previously managed by veteran Apple executive Phil Schiller. After Schiller stepped down from relevant positions in August this year, Apple has been promoting the subsequent handover of the App Store management team. Oliver's promotion is also seen as an important step for Apple to further clarify the future management structure of the App Store.
Analysts believe that since Ternus officially became Apple's CEO in September, the company is gradually completing a new stage of management reorganization. Compared with the past, Apple has begun to divide the responsibilities of some key businesses in a more detailed manner. By enhancing the authority of senior executives and cultivating the next generation of leadership teams, Apple has made advance arrangements for business development and succession plans in the next ten years.
Although this adjustment does not involve Apple's product research and development department, mergers and acquisitions, service business and App Store are all core areas where Apple has grown fastest in recent years and its strategic position has been continuously improved. Therefore, these personnel changes are regarded by the outside world as an important signal for the evolution of the organizational structure in the Ternus era, and also reflect that Apple is building a new management system for the next stage of development.
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