Tim Cook rumors affect Apple, HP stock

Late yesterday morning, a rumor hit the the Internet suggesting that Apple's COO Tim Cook was going to leave the company to become HP's CEO. As a result, Apple's stock took a dip while HP's showed a sudden spike.

In morning trading, Apple's stock fell nearly US$17 (or 5%), while HP's rose by more than $0.40 (over 1%). Clearly, investors like Tim Cook, and they saw his rumored departure as detrimental to Apple and a win for HP. Fortunately for Cupertino, it's not true.

Cook quickly denied the rumor, saying that he "...loves Apple" and is not going to HP. In January of this year, there was a rumor that Cook would become the CEO of GM, which also turned out to be false.

You'll remember that Cook took over as interim CEO during Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence in early 2009. The company successfully released several new products with Cook at the top, and many believe that he's in the running to eventually take over for Jobs.

[Via The Mac Observer]
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