Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Apple COO "Top Candidate" For GM CEO Job

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

An anonymous tipster writes in to The Business Insider:

I saw your recent post on Tim Cook at Apple. I don’t know if he has been contacted yet but he is the top candidate that Spencer Stuart has identified as the next CEO of GM. I have an inside source at Spencer Stuart.

[Interim GM CEO Edward E. Whitacre] wants the candidate to come from a company known for operational excellence, innovation and customer satisfaction and in addition he is looking for someone that has turnaround experience. It also doesn’t hurt that [Tim] has been able to work with Jobs. Whitacre does want to stay on as Chairman. Also, Cook has been the key link to AT&T and should understand the culture that Whitacre, [a former AT&T CEO] built.

Will be interesting to see if he would leave Apple for this. I don’t know him but if he wants to be a CEO it does seem he needs to leave with Jobs back. Most interesting will be to see a CEO from Apple and a CFO from Microsoft.

Paging Thomas Friedman! [Hat Tip: CammyCorrigan]

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • ASISEEIT ASISEEIT on Jan 04, 2010

    Question- When/If- G.M. ever hires a good CEO that actually makes the business work again will the board of directors that gave Waggoner endless votes of confidence live with themselves? They seemed to have enjoyed their former CEO destroy most of G.M. by rallying him with their unconditional support!

    • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Jan 04, 2010
      Question- When/If- G.M. ever hires a good CEO that actually makes the business work again will the board of directors that gave Waggoner endless votes of confidence live with themselves? They seemed to have enjoyed their former CEO destroy most of G.M. by rallying him with their unconditional support! Say what you will about the PTFOA, one very positive change they made was a wholesale gutting of GM's BoD. Gone are the likes of George Fischer, who was wont to exclaim that Rick et al "had the right stuff" while GM was bleeding cash, brand equity, respect and talent. Remember, Whitacre is the interim CEO, but he's the permanent Chairman. His track record over the past few months is not one I'd qualify as "bystanderish".
  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on Jan 04, 2010

    "Will be interesting to see if he would leave Apple for this. I don’t know him but if he wants to be a CEO it does seem he needs to leave with Jobs back." Last picture I saw of Jobs showed a very sick man. I don't think that Mr. Jobs is long term for that position.

  • Fincar1 Fincar1 on Jan 05, 2010

    Could it be that Mr. Cook simply has a good PR guy?

  • Moedaman Moedaman on Jan 05, 2010

    Well if a guy is smart and knows what he's doing, he'll still be smart and know what he's doing no matter what he's doing. Let's be honest, the lifer "car guys" that ran GM before didn't do such a hot job themselves. Tim Cook would probably learn the car business pretty quickly and correctly (i.e. minus the lifer hubris) and run GM far better than the endless line-up of previous idiots did.

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