Apple cloud services chief Michael Abbott to step down next month: report

Apple’s senior executive Michael Abbott, who is in charge of cloud services, will leave the company in April, Bloomberg News reported on 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, leads the iCloud service and is in charge of the platform that powers features such as Emergency SOS and Find My on iPhones as well as new features including iCloud data encryption.

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

Longtime Apple engineer Jeff Robbin will assume Abbott’s responsibilities, Bloomberg News reported.

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

Apple shares rose about 3.4% in afternoon trading.

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

Lawyers representing Apple said in a notice filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal on Friday that the AMC’s investigation should be reconsidered. In its argument, the lawyers said the CMA had failed to meet the timing requirements of launching an investigation.

© Thomson Reuters 2023