Brazil

"But Cook’s email to the board was a model of transparency relative to what he and Maestri would tell analysts on the earnings call just a few hours later. They informed Wall Street that Apple was expecting $89 billion to $93 billion of revenue in the holiday quarter, underwhelming investors. But they didn’t say a word about the muted sales of the XR, or the difficulties of forecasting, or that Cupertino now expected China revenues to shrink. Instead, they soothed investors with cheery sentiment. The obfuscation was brazen. Asked specifically about the XR, Cook replied that it’d been on sale for just five days so “we have very, very little data there.” Asked about “deceleration” in emerging markets including China, Cook said it was a “great question” and mentioned “we’re seeing pressure in… markets like Turkey, India, Brazil, Russia.” Then he switched to China, subtly moving from present tense—the nature of the question—and looked back a quarter: “In relation to China specifically, I would not put China in that category. Our business in China was very strong last quarter. We grew 16 percent, which we’re very happy with. iPhone in particular was very strong, very strong double-digit growth there.”"

"in 2009 I moved to the secretariat of Michele Ferrero. He was looking for someone who could be available also at unusual hours: 'I need a secretary to cover the nighttime part of my project activity.' Mr. Michele slept little: it could happen that an idea came to him, to be codified immediately, very early in the morning. I was used to the singularities of his requests: one day, during the Christmas period, I left for Brazil with a package of products to test for that market.""

"It was never entirely good with my father, but we found a modus vivendi that was civilized. The incident and grandfather's words shattered the last shackle to parental authority and became the final step towards a life of my own in freedom, a memory my thoughts touch upon in contemplative moments. I can only marvel at grandfather's empathy in his son and grandson's relationship. That I would have been the stronger was unthinkable, but it naturally reveals a wisdom that comes to the old about how generations follow generations, take over, and succeed—not without sacrifice. I have often wondered how our relationship would have developed if my father had lived longer, had successes as an ambassador in Brazil, and ended his diplomatic career in Spain, as he dreamed of. Perhaps his negative outlook on life would have changed then, and he would have dared to show that he liked me."

"We made our first foray in 2019 when we acquired a majority stake in the bankrupt Colombian telecoms company Avantel, merged it with a vehicle that we had used to buy Colombian mobile telecoms spectrum, and renamed the whole operation WOM Colombia. We then set about investing in infrastructure projects in Colombia over the next five years. Following a bandwidth auction, we won 20 MHz in the 700 MHz spectrum and 30 MHz in the 2,500 MHz spectrum. We then invested in building WOM Colombia’s network, installing more than 8,000 antennae and 3,000 additional towers, and created 2,500 direct and more than 5,000 indirect jobs, with an average age of 32 for recruits. We were probably Colombia’s largest recruiter, opening 147 stores in one year alone. Altogether, we have invested $1 billion of equity in WOM Colombia. We betted heavily that the strategy that had worked so well in Chile would resonate with customers in the much larger Colombian market. It often surprises Europeans that Colombia is the second largest market in South America, after Brazil but before Argentina and Peru, with an official population of more than 57 million, plus what is reported to be more than 5 million Venezuelans."