Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, has implied that Apple is up the creek without a paddle now that co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs has passed away.
However, Carl Icahn, a billionaire investor type, boosted the company's share price after picking up $1 billion worth of stock and taking to Twitter to describe the company as "extremely undervalued".
So who to believe? Ellison told Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning that "we already know" Apple's Jobs-less destiny.
Yo yo
"We saw - we conducted the experiment," he said, referring to the time between 1985 and 1996 when Jobs left Apple. "I mean, it's been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs, we saw Apple without Steve Jobs.
"We saw Apple with Steve Jobs," meaning when Jobs returned in 1996 and the company's fortunes rose. "Now we're gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs."
It's not the first time this week that Apple's supposedly shaking standing has been jiggled further - earlier this week we reported on whisperings that Tim Cook is under heavy pressure from the Apple board who don't feel that the company is "innovating" quickly enough.
However, not everyone foresees doom and gloom for one of the world's most successful technology companies.
Carl Icahn, whose surname, at least, is on-brand, tweeted his thoughts on the company's robust standing and bumped Apple's share price up by nearly 5% as a result.
He's not all-mouth-and-no-trouser, though, having also picked up $1 billion of Apple stock, according to an anonymous source talking to Bloomberg.
- So what does the future hold for Apple? Is it screwed? Will it be totally fine? Should Google buy it? Will people ever stop buying iPhones? Do you care? Let us know what you think in the comments.
