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Comment by seviu | Hacker News Reader

This is John Ternus having a beef with Tang Tan. It’s widely known they both competed for the role of CEO. Tim Cook would never have started this.

It shows a level of pettiness and arrogance which I never expected to see from Apple.

I can’t put myself in the mind of John, but he clearly hated Tang.

From outside and with a parent’s perspective this looks like my kids throwing a tantrum.

John must be thinking he is the new Steve Jobs (Steve would definitely do this)

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It's interesting that you say they must have hated each other, but assume only Ternus is acting on that. What makes you think Tan's hatred of Ternus or animosity toward Apple for picking Ternus over him didn't lead Tan to do the alleged behavior?

I am not the one who says that

https://x.com/markgurman/status/2075949833920065879?s=20

Maybe a naive take, but if there's one team in a large corporation that does not bend to "the CEO(-to-be) wants it", that is the Legal team. Particularly when the ask is a lawsuit of this scope and relevance, and potential costs (of all kinds). The head of Legal can just hint to the board how expensive (in all senses) the vendetta would be and the CEO is likely "not to be" anymore, or "to be temporary".

Tim Cook is the current CEO. Tim Cook is doing this. Any assertion otherwise is 100% wrong.

John Ternus doesn't become CEO until September 1st. If you think that this is still John Ternus' play, Tim Cook is still the one in charge and signed off to start this, meaning "Tim Cook would never have started this" is still 100% wrong.

The alleged crime sounded childish. Appeal to rule of law, enforced by the court system is necessary for a fair business enviornment.

Sending the notification letters is probably petty though.

These letters are simple "If you have evidence related to this lawsuit, you must preserve it" letters. And entirely routine in this kind of action. There are more of them than in most cases, because this is such a big case. But the gist is entirely routine.

This comment is really strange and reads like disinformation

Weird take. With as much evidence as they have (unless they're just wildly fabricating everything in their lawsuit complaint, which... really? All Apple's lawyers are just making up claims in court documents? Sounds very career-ending, why would the lawyers do that?) they would be complete idiots not to sue.

There is absolutely no evidence at all. Apple is going to loose this. The beef is real, and though Tim is acting CEO till the 1st of September I am ready to bet anything that the order to sue comes from Ternus. Specially considering that there is no evidence of wrongdoing or stealing.

And if there is, tell me what.

John Grubes might be a better authority than me in these matters and he seems to share my opinion. You can listen to it here:

https://dithering.passport.online/member/episode/apple-sues-...

Widely known where?

Tang was never mentioned as a candidate in anything I read over the past few years. He wasn't an SVP.

Tang and Ternus where the candidates in 2021 as head of hardware engineering as Dan Riccio left. Tang lost and went to OpenAI.

It’s well known within Apple that they hate each other.

They were candidates for SVP in 2021, with Ternus being selected. Tang left in 2024. Ternus was named CEO in 2026. Seems a stretch to say they competed for the role of CEO.

Oh it isn’t

This has Ternus driven all over it

Tang was passed over for SVP. He was never in competition with Ternus or anybody else for CEO.

Agreed Steve would do this

But the iPhone is the most valuable consumer hardware product on the planet, and the accusations here is “conspiracy to steal” essentially.

Is it really that petty? Apple should be okay with theft of valuable secrets?

Apple comes down hard on employees who merely leak to the press. Taking internal documents to a competitor is not going to be fun.

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