Apple Cloud Services chief Michael Abbott to step down next month: report

Apple’s top executive Michael Abbott, who is in charge of cloud services, is leaving the company in April, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The iPhone maker did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Abbott, who joined Apple in 2018, heads the iCloud service and is in charge of the platform that powers features like Emergency SOS and Find My on iPhones, as well as new features including iCloud data encryption.

He previously held top roles at Twitter and Palm, and was a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.

According to a Bloomberg News report, longtime Apple engineer Jeff Robin will take over Abbott’s responsibilities.

Earlier this year, Insider reported that Vice President of Services Peter Stern, who oversaw the expansion of Apple’s paid subscription businesses, particularly its television offering Apple TV+, would be leaving the company.

Apple shares were up about 3.4 percent in afternoon trading.

Last November, Britain’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), launched a full investigation into cloud gaming and mobile browsers over concerns about restrictions by iPhone-makers Apple and Google. In January 2023, Apple filed an appeal against an investigation by the UK competition watchdog into the dominance of its mobile browser in the cloud gaming market.

Lawyers representing Apple said in a notice filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal on Friday that the CMA’s investigation should be reviewed. In their argument, the lawyers said the CMA did not meet the timing requirements associated with initiating an investigation.

© Thomson Reuters 2023