Apple Loses Its Chief Design Officer, Jony Ive

Apple reported on Thursday that Jony Ive, the tech giant’s chief design officer would leave the company.

Aside from that, on the after-hours trading news, the stocks of Apple fell 1%.

The firm acknowledges Ive as one of the most influential people of Apple. He was responsible for the industrial design and the appearance and feel of all significant Apple products such as the iPhone and the Mac. Also, he’s been working at Apple for more than 20 years.

In addition to that, the main reason for his departure is because Ive will open his business called LoveFrom. And he will work with his longtime friend and fellow designer Marc Newson. As a sign of support, Apple will be one of their clients.

Jony Ive stated, “I will not be an employee. I will still be very involved.”

Ive also declared, “This just seems like a natural and gentle time to make this change.”

As of now, no one is taking over of the position as chief design officer. However, the vice president of Industrial Design, Evans Hankey, and the vice president of Human Interface Design, Alan Dye, will acquire additional duties. And the two designers will directly report to the chief operating officer, Jeff Williams.

Furthermore, Ive committed a massive part of his time in the past few years to build Apple Park. It is the firm’s $5-billion campus in Cupertino, California. Then, Apple formally opened its new headquarters last month with a concert on the campus.

Ive declared in a statement, “There were some significant projects that I feel like I’ve completed. For example, Apple Park. This was a project that started in 2014…That was a really significant project that was unlike many of our others because it was for us.”

Microsoft Cashing In

Meanwhile, Microsoft invested in an innovative healthcare company named Adaptive Biotechnology in late 2017. And it hopes to set its advanced cloud technology to work in life sciences. At the same time, making money as a substantial shareholder.

Then on Thursday, Microsoft seems poised to take both.

Moreover, Adaptive is developing its so-called immune medicine platform to improve the way we treat numerous diseases. And it towered in its public market debut.

On Thursday, its stock doubled during the intra-day trading. It ended at $40.30 after the firm sold shares on Wednesday night at $20 apiece. As a result, the value of Microsoft’s $45 million investment at $10.67 per share nearly quadrupled.

With a market cap of more than $1 trillion, the American tech company has abundant ways to generate profits. Aside from its investment in the biggest biotech IPO of 2019 so far, Microsoft’s Azure unit is testing out its artificial intelligence tools in an industry which promises to be highly lucrative in the coming years. Also, the global immunology market will rise from $57.7 billion in 2015 to $74.1 billion in 2022.

Aside from that, Adaptive agreed to spend at least $12 million on Azure for seven years. And Microsoft will be the exclusive provider of cloud services during that time.