Apple CEO Tim Cook slams a Wall Street Journal report that he's not interested in product design, and it's part of why Jony Ive left

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• Apple CEO Tim Cook slammed a Wall Street Journal report on the departure of design chief Jony Ive, calling it "absurd."
• It was a rare public comment by the company on news coverage about the Silicon Valley icon.
• In an email, Cook said the news article's reporting and conclusions "just don't match with the reality."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday slammed a Wall Street report on the departure of design chief Jony Ive, saying it was "absurd" and full of inaccuracies.

In a rare public comment on news coverage of Apple, Cook said in an email to NBC News that "a lot of the reporting, and certainly the conclusions, just don't match with reality."

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The Wall Street Journal had reported that Ive had gradually drifted apart from Apple after Cook, who took over after the death of Steve Jobs, demonstrated little interest in the product development process.

Cook disputed the report in the email to NBC News, saying "it shows a lack of understanding about how the design team works and how Apple works."

"It distorts relationships, decisions and events to the point that we just don't recognize the company it claims to describe," he added.

A Wall Street Journal spokesperson said the newspaper stands by the report.

Ive, one of Apple's legendary executives, said he was leaving the company to launch his own independent design company called LoveFrom. Apple will be one of its main clients.

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