Jimmy Iovine's NOT Leaving Apple in August, Claims 'A Lot' More to Do
Hold the music, because Jimmy Iovine’s not leaving Apple, at least for now, according to Variety.
At the beginning of the year, Bloomberg reported Iovine was leaving Apple in August when his Apple stock becomes completely vested. Days later, the music mogul is firing back saying that’s not the case.
Explaining he had no plans of leaving Apple, Iovine notes:
I am almost 65, have been with Apple for four years and in 2 1/2 years the [Apple Music] service has gotten to well over 30 million subscribers and Beats has continued its successful run. But there’s still a lot more we’d like to do. I am committed to doing whatever Eddy [Cue], Tim [Cook] and Apple need me to do, to help wherever and however I can, to take this all the way. I am in the band.
Iovine joined Apple in 2014 when the company purchased Beats Electronics for $2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock. Since then, his Apple stock has slowly vested in stages, with the last portion due in August.
He continued:
All this stuff you’re seeing in the newspapers, let me tell you, my stock vested a long time ago. We need Donald Trump here to call it ‘fake news
There is a tiny portion of stock that vests in August, but that’s not what I think about.
My contract is up in August, but the funny thing is, I don’t have a contract. I have a deal, and certain things happen along that deal. The bottom line is I’m loyal to the guys at Apple. I love Apple, and I really love musicians. That’s why those articles annoyed me, because it had nothing to do with reality. It made it out to be all about money.
Since joining Apple, Iovine has focused on the Apple Music subscription service, which currently has more than 30 million subscribers.