Give Elon Musk this much credit: When he picks a fight, he isn’t shy about punching above his weight.
In a series of tweets, Musk accused Apple of threatening to cut off Twitter from the App Store and took issue with Apple’s practice of cutting itself in for a piece of the action.
He also said Apple has pulled most of its advertising from Twitter.
And then Musk introduced a culture-wars element to the corporate dispute, suggesting Apple is censoring voices it disagrees with.
“Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk wanted to know.
It’s the world’s richest person vs. the world’s richest company.
It’s also the latest example of the business world’s most petulant leader throwing a tantrum in public rather than resolving disputes in a more discreet manner.
Apple has yet to comment on Musk’s tweets.
To be sure, Musk isn’t alone in thinking Apple takes unfair advantage of its market clout to extract concessions from affiliates.
Apple’s up to 30% cut of revenue from apps distributed through its App Store has long been a bone of contention among tech startups.
Be that as it may, it’s hard to think of many examples of smaller companies prevailing in any dustup with Silicon Valley’s iDaddy.
Viewers of Showtime’s series about Uber, “Super Pumped,” will recall how the ride-share company tried to pull a fast one on Apple, only to be spanked by a having-none-of-it CEO Tim Cook.
At the end of the day, Musk peeing in Apple’s pool probably won’t accomplish more than lasting animosity between the two companies.
It also cements his growing reputation as a guy who doesn’t play well with others.
Musk is about to learn that firing thousands of employees is a lot easier than trying to muscle a company worth more than $2 trillion.
