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this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Apple is a hardware company. They get the biggest bang from people buying their hardware. They aren't going to make this easy cause it quite literally means giving the shareholders less profit, which is illegal in the US.
Making less profit than previous periods of time or even operating at a loss is not illegal in the US. Many companies have periods where they lose money or sacrifice short term profits for long term growth.
Investors with enough control might boot the leadership out, but they can also do that for whatever reason including unrealistic expectations.
Hell, some of the highest valued tech companies right now have never turned a profit in their entire existence.
Suckling the teat of VC firms and investors works really well until the money dries up. After that, enshittification. Lots and lots of enshittification.
FFS sake, our CEO told the Board, for a couple of years, "We're gonna lose money to invest in $X, $Y and $Z." They applauded him. Out loud. Literal clapping.
(We accidently made profits for those years. Oops. But that's beside the point.)
This is a bit of a misnomer. It is illegal for a company to deliberately lower share value, not to make a business move that ends up lowering share value.
Specifically, it's the fiduciary duty of the directors to act in the best interests of the shareholders.
In other words, the consumer doesn't matter, the employees don't matter beyond what the law mandates, and the quality of the product or service doesn't matter until it starts impacting profits or stock values. The only time these actually need to be given any consideration is when it would serve to benefit shareholders, such as with hiring skilled talent or before the company has a reputation for quality products.
Cite me chapter and verse. Point to the illegality that hurt you.
https://uscode.house.gov/
This idea is a childish notion of how corporations work. And it's a lie. I'm not saying there's nuance here, I'm saying it's a LIE. But bullshit scores internet points!
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-corporations-obligations-to-shareholders/corporations-dont-have-to-maximize-profits