Tim Cook revealed in a company-wide memo to troops Monday that the company had doubled its donations to help fight the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus globally.
Apple’s chief executive wrote in his message to employees that the company has now doubled its donation to support what he called “the historic and global health response” to the epidemic that has put millions across China under lockdown and took more than 72,000 lives so far.
Here’s Cook’s memo in full:
Team,
The response to COVID-19 has touched the lives of so many in the Apple family and I want to thank everyone for their dedication, empathy, understanding and care. Today, we more than doubled our donation to support the historic and global health response.
Our paramount concern is with the people who make up Apple’s community of employees, partners, customers and suppliers in China. I also want to recognize the many people across our teams who have been working around the clock to manage Apple’s global COVID-19 response with diligence and thoughtfulness.
Corporate offices and contact centers have reopened across China, and our stores are starting to reopen, but we are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated. This afternoon, I shared this update with our community of shareholders and investors to note that we do not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter. Outside of China, customer demand across our product and service categories has been strong to date and in line with our expectations. Apple is fundamentally strong, and this disruption to our business is only temporary.
Our first priority – now and always – is the health and safety of our employees, supply chain partners, customers, and the communities in which we operate. Our profound gratitude is with those on the front lines of confronting this public health emergency.
Tim.
Cook first revealed Apple was donating money to battle the virus spread in January.
As people in China and around the world celebrate the Lunar New Year, we send our love and support to the many impacted by the Coronavirus. Apple will be donating to groups on the ground helping support all of those affected.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 25, 2020
The company also issued a revenue warning cautioning investors that it won’t meet its revenue goals for the March quarter due to two primary factors: store closures in China and impacted iPhone production. AAPL was down over three percent in pre-market trading Tuesday after the revenue warning (Apple originally guided a revenue of $63-$67 billion for the March quarter).
BusinessInsider reports that global markets fell after Apple released its bad news:
- European stocks have dropped. Germany’s DAX slid 0.8 percent, Britain’s FTSE 100 slid one percent and the Euro Stoxx 50 slumped 0.6 percent.
- Asian indexes were broadly lower. China’s Shanghai Composite was almost flat, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1.5 percent, and Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.4 percent.
- US stocks are set to open lower. Futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 fell 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent, and Nasdaq futures dropped 0.8 percent.
- Oil prices dropped. West Texas Intermediate slid 1.8 percent to $51.40 a barrel, while Brent crude fell 1.9 percent to $56.60.
Apple did reopen some of its retail stores in Beijing last Friday, but with limited hours and they’re screening customers. Foxconn, its key contract manufacturer, reopened its primary iPhone plant in China last week with only ten percent of the workforce.
As per the World Health Organization, there have been 71,429 confirmed cases and 1,775 deaths so far, with 2,000+ new cases and 100+ new deaths in the past 24 hours alone.
Want do you make of Cook’s message to troops?
Let us know in the comments down below!