The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

How to Preempt a Competitor Without Boxing Yourself In

A vague public commitment can steal credit for an idea while letting your rival define the price.

We're starting to hear an escalation of the rumors that Apple will be changing its rev share on subscriptions to 85/15, potentially as early as WWDC (which is the week of 6/13). It's a scramble but I think we need to assume the rumor is true and plan accordingly. If we can move quickly, we have a good opportunity to 'lick the cookie' and preempt Apple's announcement. At the same time, we don't want to overshoot or box ourselves in.

One strategy would be to make a public statement on how we're working on changing our revenue share to 85/15 for [content] subscriptions 'in the near future' and say that more details are coming soon. This would give us credit for the idea, but would put the ball in Apple's court to define it — so we don't overshoot or undershoot.

Update from Mike Petrillo (6/3/2016): We've assessed the situation and concluded there's a low likelihood that Apple will announce anything major centered around a business model change at WWDC. We'll keep our billing policy as is for now. No need for deal review at this time. Next steps include collecting additional intel and preparing reactive comms for press and developers.

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Court Exhibit
In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation (Epic v. Google)
3:21-md-02981 (CAND), Doc. 888-42, filed 2023-12-21
June 3, 2016
Public domain
View the primary source →