Tim Cook Will Attend Trump’s Tech Summit Wednesday

Kara Swisher, reporting for Recode:

Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg are among the small group of top tech leaders who will attend a summit with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday at Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to numerous sources with knowledge of the situation. […]

Those who will be attending (although most of the companies declined to comment to Recode) along with Page, Cook and Sandberg, include: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins; IBM CEO Ginni Rometty; Intel CEO Brian Krzanich; and Oracle CEO Safra Catz.

As Gabe Rivera notes, the invitation list seems to correspond to those companies with $100 billion market caps.

“I plan to tell the President-elect that we are with him and will help in any way we can,” said Catz in a statement. “If he can reform the tax code, reduce regulation and negotiate better trade deals, the U.S. technology industry will be stronger and more competitive than ever.”

“We are with him and will help in any way we can” sounds like “I’m ready to spit-shine his shoes” to my ears. I expect all of them to be polite — or perhaps better put, politic — in their public statements on the meeting, but there’s no need for these CEOs to fall in line.

I expect Tim Cook to handle himself just fine. I think he’ll leave Trump Tower with his dignity, integrity, and Apple Inc.’s interests under a Trump administration intact. (Getting a bill passed to repatriate foreign-held dollars at a reasonable tax rate could happen in the post-Trump political climate.) But, man, to be a fly on the wall in that room if Steve Jobs were still alive….

★ Saturday, 10 December 2016