14 DAY TRIAL // In a long interview with the people at Bloomberg, former Apple CEO John Sculley said that the company founded by Steve Jobs was misunderstood by investors.
Being directly responsible for some of Apple’s biggest failures, Sculley may not seem fit to give shareholders advice on how to bet on the company.
However, the man repeatedly clarified in the past that he didn’t understand Apple at the time he got the late Steve Jobs fired. In recent years, however, he’s changed his views dramatically.
For one thing, he doesn’t see Apple agreeing to the $150 billion (€109.77 billion) buyback program proposed by juggernaut Carl Icahn.
On the other hand, he sees Icahn’s $4.1 billion (€3.0 billion) stake in Apple as a great thing, suggesting that investors like Donald Trump don’t know what they’re doing. More on that here: Donald Trump Sells His Stake in Apple, Carl Icahn Buys More Shares.
Sculley believes Apple’s stock will rebound as soon as the company introduces something new.
He didn’t mention iWatches or Apple televisions, but he did say something interesting about mobile payments, which seemed to catch the attention of the interviewers.
Sculley even noted that Apple should go out and buy eBay, but then quickly retracted that idea, saying Apple itself could become a payments processor, thanks to the 600+ million iTunes accounts it has on file.
At an investor conference on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook actually said that mobile payments were one of the top priorities when the Touch ID fingerprint sensor came about.
Whether or not Sculley’s prediction will be fulfilled anytime soon, Apple this year will continue to increment its strongest business pillars (the iPhone and the iPad), and rumor has it that the company will introduce an all-new product category (wearable computer) with the iWatch.