Apple bringing 1,000 new jobs to Ireland, where Tim Cook describes Microsoft’s Surface Book as “deluded”

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The Irish government has announced that that Apple will be employing an additional 1,000 staff in Ireland, the country where the company declares much of its revenue from sales throughout Europe, reports Reuters.

Ireland’s main foreign investment agency, the IDA, said Apple was to add 1,000 jobs to its office in Cork by mid-2017 from 5,000 at present. It said the company had also added 1,000 jobs in the past year.

There had been some concern about whether Apple would maintain a significant presence in the country if the European Commission investigation into Apple’s tax dealings in the country went against the company …

Apple has an arrangement with the Irish government that sees it paying corporation tax of just 2.5% on the $109B profits it declared in the country over the past five years, just a fifth of the normal 12.5% paid by most other companies. It’s believed the government agreed to the terms in order to secure both jobs and tax revenues.

A decision on whether the tax deal with Apple constituted unfair state aid is due after Christmas, Finance Minister Michael Noonan told journalists on Wednesday.

Apple warned shareholders earlier this year that it could face “material back taxes” if its tax arrangements in Ireland were found to be illegal.

CEO Tim Cook, who is in Dublin today, said that “Apple is proud to call Ireland home.” He also promised that Apple Pay would be coming to Ireland, which is a separate country to the UK.

Cook also took time out to contrast the iPad Pro, which went on sale today, with Microsoft’s Surface Book, describing the latter as “deluded” by thinking it can be both a laptop and a tablet.

Cook: Surface Book is "deluded", because trying to be a laptop and tablet. It's "trying too hard to do too much".

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Adrian Weckler (@adrianweckler) November 11, 2015