Apple talked with Tosi about becoming its CFO, three people familiar with the situation said on Saturday.. Tosi told Blackstone Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman that he plans to stay put, two of the people said.
Tosi, 42, would have brought a background in corporate acquisitions. Blackstone, the world's largest private-equity firm, made more than 30 purchases last year, compared with four for Apple, according to Bloomberg data. Apple's profit has increased more than fourfold in the past three years, helping it amass a $25.6 billion cash pile that could be used for purchases.
"If you're trying to hire someone whose DNA is deals, you're signalling to the public markets that you're considering changing your portfolio," said Peter Crist, chairman of Crist/Kolder Associates, a Hinsdale, Illinois-based executive- recruiting firm that has conducted CFO searches for such clients as General Motors Co. and Sunoco Inc.
Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, said the company is "not conducting a CFO search." Current CFO Peter Oppenheimer "loves the company and is extremely happy,'' he said.
A change in Apple's top finance post would be the first since 2004, when the company appointed Oppenheimer, now 48, to replace Fred Anderson, who later co-founded private-equity firm Elevation Partners. Since then, Apple has become the world's second-largest company by market value as its stock has surged more than 20-fold. None of the 55 Apple analysts tracked by Bloomberg rates the shares "sell."
While Oppenheimer has drawn praise from investors for his management of the company's finances, investors and analysts -- including Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- have called on Apple to return some of its cash to investors in the form of a buyback or dividend.
"They have been managing the balance sheet well," said Giri Cherukuri, a portfolio manager at Oakbrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois, which holds Apple shares. "They have had a lot of products and the cash position has growth, and they are being smart about spending that money wisely.
Jobs, Apple's 55-year-old CEO, said in October that the company has a good track record of using its cash and is reserving it for one or more "strategic opportunities."
Oppenheimer, who has been with Apple since 1996, didn't respond to a request for comment. Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for New York-based Blackstone, declined to comment.
Apple's holdings of cash and short-term investments climbed to $25.6 billion as of Sept. 30 from $15.4 billion three years earlier. When including long-term holdings, the amount is $51 billion.
A new CFO would have "a lot of money to spend," Cherukuri said. "They have a big cash pile that you need to decide what do with." The finance chief at an electronics maker such as Apple would also have to handle such complicated tasks as managing a manufacturing supply chain. That mastery would only come from experience at another technology hardware company, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. in San Francisco .
Apple's approach to Tosi is therefore a "head scratcher," Marshall said.
Apple furthermore doesn't make the kinds of expensive acquisitions that take the company into new businesses and might necessitate a change in the top finance job, he said.
"This is certainly a surprising development, considering the financial performance of him and his team," said Marshall.
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