Apple’s CEO Switch; Amazon’s AI Hedge

Happy talk. That’s what you get when CEOs pass the baton, and so it was with Apple’s long-anticipated announcement that Tim Cook would give up the top job, effective in September. “I love Apple with all of my being,” Cook said in the announcement (he’s sticking around as executive chair). “I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come,” said Cook’s successor as CEO, John Ternus, currently a senior hardware executive. The truth is that Ternus should be terrified.

After all, it’s going to be tough, if not impossible, for Ternus to top Cook when it comes to delivering shareholder returns. While Steve Jobs set the stage for Cook with his development of such iconic products as the iPhone, Cook turned those products into a well-tuned cash engine. (For more on the transition, see here).