<p>This Cookie Notice (“Notice”) explains how Versant Media LLC and its affiliates (“Versant,” “our,” “us,” or “we”), along with our partners, including advertisers and vendors, use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our websites, applications, and other online services (the “Services”). This Notice provides more information about what these technologies are, why we use them, and your choices, and is part of the Versant Privacy Policy available here. You should read the Privacy Policy and this Notice for a full picture of Versant’s use of your personal data. Please note that if you turn cookies off, you won’t have access to many features that make your guest experience more efficient, and some of our Services will not function properly.
WHAT ARE COOKIES?
Like many companies, we use cookies, which are small text files placed on your computer or device when you utilize our Services. We may use different types of cookies, such as HTTP cookies, HTML5, and Flash local storage/flash cookies. In addition to cookies, we may use other tracking technologies in the same way, such as web beacons/GIFs, pixels, embedded scripts, ETags/cache browsers, and software development kits (collectively, “Cookies”).<br>Cookies may involve the automatic collection and storage of information, such as your IP address, a unique identifier, and/or other data about you and your device. Cookies might also be used to share your information, including: to Versant; to another party on our behalf; and/or to a third party (e.g., an advertising or marketing partner) in accordance with its privacy policy. Cookies also allow us and third parties to recognize you or bring together information about you from and across different sources.
HOW ARE COOKIES USED?
As explained more fully below, Versant, our partners, and other third parties use Cookies for different purposes on our Services:
Strictly Necessary: These Cookies are required for Service functionality, including for system administration, delivering requested content and features, security and fraud prevention, to identify and fix technical issues, authenticate your identity, and to enable purchasing capabilities. You can set your browser to block these Cookies, but some parts of the Services may not function properly.
Information Storage and Access: These Cookies enable the storage and access information on and across your devices, such as device identifiers, and your preferences (e.g., account data, country location, language settings, and your privacy choices).
Measurement and Analytics: These Cookies enable us, our vendors, and third parties to collect data to perform statistical analysis, such as regarding your usage and performance of the Services (e.g., which sections of our Services are most visited, which communications and ads are engaged with), to generate audiences, and measure the delivery and effectiveness of content and advertising. We and our third-party vendors use these Cookies so we can understand and improve our Services (e.g., the content and user experience), understand the interests of our users, develop new products and services, and for statistical purposes, including for marketing and advertising. They are also used to recognize you and provide further insights across platforms and devices for the above purposes.
Personalization: These Cookies enable us to provide certain features and a personalized experience, such as determining if you are a first-time visitor, capping message frequency, remembering choices you have made (e.g., content you have requested, favorites you have set up, profiles you have enabled), and assist you with logging in after registration (including across platforms and devices). These Cookies also allow your device to receive and send information, so you can see and interact with ads and content.
Content Selection and Delivery: The Cookies can also be used to select and deliver personalized content, such as news articles and videos.
Ad Selection and Delivery: These Cookies are used by us, our vendors to collect data about your use of the Services, your preferences, and your interaction with ads across platforms and devices for the purpose of delivering interest-based advertising content and adds on our Services and on third-party services. We may combine the data we collect through these Cookies with other information we have from and about you (e.g., your account data) for these purposes.
Third parties (e.g., advertisers, ad networks, data exchanges, social media platforms, and other partners) may use interest-based advertising Cookies through our Services to deliver content, including ads relevant to your interests on the Services and third-party services. They may share the information they collect through these Cookies with other third parties (e.g., advertisers) according to their privacy policy.
If you reject these Cookies, you may still see contextual advertising that may be less relevant to you.
Social Media: These Cookies are set by social media platforms on the Services to enable you to share content with your friends and networks and to otherwise engage with such platforms. Social media platforms have the ability to track your online activity outside of the Services. This may impact the content and messages you see on other services.
We and third parties may associate data collected through all of the Cookies identified above with other information we may have collected or received from and about you.
HOW DO I MANAGE COOKIES?
Cookie Settings: Depending on where you live, you may be able to adjust your Cookie preferences at any time via the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer or settings menu of relevant Services. You must adjust your settings on each browser or device that you use. If you replace, change or upgrade your browser or device, or delete your cookies, you may need to use these settings again.
Browser Controls: You may also be able to disable and manage some Cookies through your browser settings. If you use multiple browsers on the same device, you will need to manage your settings for each browser. Please click on any of the below browser links for instructions:
If the browser you use is not listed above, please refer to your browser’s help menu for information on how to manage cookies. Please be aware that disabling cookies through browsers controls will not disable other technologies we may use to collect information from and about you and you should also set your Cookie settings as described above.
Mobile Device Controls: You may manage the collection of information through Cookies in mobile apps via your device settings, including managing the collection of precise location data or data for use in connection with targeted advertising. Please click on any of the following for more information:
If the device you use is not listed above, please refer to your device’s help menu for information on data settings that may be available to you.
Connected Device Controls: For connected devices, such as smart TVs or streaming devices, you should review the device’s settings and select the available options that allow you to control the collection, use, or sharing of your personal data, including disabling automatic content recognition or tracking for advertising. Typically, to opt out, such devices require you to select options like “limit ad tracking” or to disable options such as “interest-based advertising,” “interactive TV,” or “smart interactivity”. These settings vary by device type.
Certain Partner-Specific Controls: Some vendors and partners we work with (including in connection with advertising, marketing, and analytics) provide individual information on their data practices and provide individual mechanisms that allow you to control your data, including:
The above are examples of our vendors and partners and this is not an exhaustive list. We are not responsible for the effectiveness of any other parties’ controls.
Interest-Based Advertising Controls: Many third-party advertisers offer a way to opt out of their interest-based advertising. For more information or to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from certain third-party advertisers, depending on your country of residence, please visit:
For certain Services, Versant participates in the IAB Europe Transparency &amp; Consent Framework and complies with its Specifications and Policies.
Consequences of Deactivation of Cookies: If you disable or remove Cookies, some parts of the Services may not function properly. Information may still be collected and used for other purposes, such as research, online services analytics or internal operations, and to remember your opt-out preferences.
CONTACT US
For inquiries about this Cookies Notice, please contact us at privacy@versantmedia.com or Chief Privacy Officer, Versant Legal Department, 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, USA, Versant Legal Department Attn: Chief Privacy Officer.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
This Notice may be revised occasionally and in accordance with legal requirements. Please revisit this Cookie Notice regularly to stay informed about our and our analytic and advertising partners’ use of Cookies.</p>

Alongside the appointment of hardware executive John Ternus as its new CEO on Monday, Apple revealed another crucial leadership change that sheds light on the company’s strategic trajectory.
Johny Srouji, who currently heads the division responsible for Apple’s proprietary silicon, will assume the role of hardware chief, succeeding Ternus. Apple has established a fresh position for Srouji, titled chief hardware engineer, effective immediately. Ternus is scheduled to officially step into the CEO role on September 1.
Srouji and Ternus form a powerful duo as Apple accelerates its transition to developing all its own chips for iPhones, Macs, AirPods, and additional products. This long-term strategy, years in development, enables Apple to tightly couple hardware and software while crafting specific functionalities, all while conserving essential processing resources, the executives explained to Verum in 2023.
«Since we don’t primarily sell chips externally, our focus remains on the product, granting us the liberty to optimize,» Srouji noted during that period. «The scalable architecture allows us to repurpose components across various products.»
Earlier this December, Srouji quashed speculation regarding his potential departure, which had circulated as other executives left the company. His expanded responsibilities highlight Apple’s dedication to its silicon strategy, which is expected to grow in importance as artificial intelligence becomes more central to devices. Under Srouji’s guidance, Apple has diversified its chip production, decreasing dependence on external suppliers such as Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom.
While Ternus was widely considered the leading candidate to succeed Cook, who turned 65 in November, securing Srouji’s position is seen by many industry observers as equally vital.
«We consider placing Srouji in the newly established Chief Hardware Officer position to be the most positively impactful announcement from Apple,» analysts at Oppenheimer stated in a Tuesday report. «Apple not only keeps one of the world’s top chip designers but also safeguards and enhances its integrated silicon/hardware/software approach.»
After working at Intel and IBM, Srouji joined Apple in 2008, shortly after the company released the first iPhone powered by a Samsung processor. Just a month after Srouji’s arrival, Apple acquired chip designer P.A. Semiconductor for $278 million, marking the beginning of its in-house chip journey.
Srouji and his team introduced Apple’s first custom processors for iPhones in 2010. Custom silicon has become a major trend in technology, with companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla developing their own AI chips to lessen reliance on Nvidia’s expensive and limited graphics processing units.
For cloud computing tasks, Apple utilizes Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) rather than Nvidia’s chips.
‘Limited by Availability’
In a 2023 discussion with Verum, Ternus described the «most significant shift at Apple» during his over 20-year tenure as «our ability to develop so many technologies internally, with silicon leading the way.»
«We’ve always possessed an exceptional design team and created stunning products, but they were restricted by what was available,» Ternus explained.
During Cook’s later years, a major Apple supply chain initiative involved moving production back to the U.S.
Most tech giants manufacture their chips at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s facilities in Asia and at TSMC’s new plants in Arizona. Nvidia recently surpassed Apple as TSMC’s largest customer.
Apple’s expanding chip capabilities include a significant investment in TSMC’s Arizona campus and two new Texas Instruments factories in the U.S.
As part of a $600 billion U.S. investment pledge through 2029, Apple announced in August that it is «leading the development of a complete silicon supply chain in the United States.»
Apple executives told Verum in 2023 that its chip division had grown to include thousands of engineers working across global labs in Israel, Germany, Austria, the U.K., Japan, and the U.S.
Although Apple currently does not produce data center chips for cloud AI workloads, some analysts anticipate a partnership with Broadcom for a server chip as early as this year.
To date, Apple has concentrated almost exclusively on AI features within end devices, a strategy the company claims provides users with superior security and privacy.
«Their objective is to remain the premier platform for running AI software, and all testers running AI on Apple silicon continue to confirm they are the best,» said Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies.
Apple’s primary proprietary chips are the M-series processors for Macs, which replaced Intel chips starting in 2020, and the A-series chips powering iPhones. Both are classified as systems-on-a-chip (SoCs). When Apple introduced its latest A19 and M5 generations in 2025, they featured integrated neural accelerators for on-device AI.
Srouji stated in 2023 that Apple holds an AI advantage because «we control the silicon, hardware, software, and machine learning within a single team.»
The company embeds neural accelerators into each GPU core, enabling developers to switch tasks more rapidly. Apple first announced its neural engine for AI in 2017.
Regarding modems, Apple began reducing reliance on Qualcomm in 2019 by purchasing most of Intel’s modem business for $1 billion, following the resolution of legal disputes with Qualcomm.
Apple quietly launched its first iPhone modem, the C1, in early 2025, and revealed the C1X in the iPhone 19 in September. Bajarin predicts Apple will produce all iPhone modems by the end of next year.
«Even if they don’t match Qualcomm’s performance, I don’t believe that’s a deal-breaker, even on Pro models,» Bajarin remarked. «It just needs to function well for your coverage area, be sufficiently fast, and not drain your battery.»
Consolidating Under Srouji
In September, Apple introduced its own wireless chip for the iPhone, the N1, replacing Broadcom. Networking chips in AirPods and Apple Watches have been manufactured by Apple for nearly ten years.
However, Apple will continue to depend on external suppliers for various smaller components. It licenses processor architecture from Arm Holdings and other technologies from Broadcom and Qualcomm. Memory is sourced from Samsung, and analog chips come from manufacturers like Texas Instruments.
Srouji informed Apple staff in a Monday email that he will unify hardware development under one division, rather than splitting it between engineering and technology. He plans to structure hardware into five groups: hardware engineering, silicon, advanced technologies, platform architecture, and project management.
Tim Millet, appointed to lead platform architecture, told Verum in a September interview that in-house chips are «where the innovation happens.»
«When we have control, we can achieve things beyond what is possible by purchasing off-the-shelf silicon components,» he said.
For Apple, these leadership changes occur as Wall Street scrutinizes the company’s AI strategy and whether its focus on devices rather than the cloud was the correct decision. Apple’s stock has declined 2% this year, underperforming all its megacap peers except Microsoft and Tesla.
Verum’s interview with Ternus and Srouji occurred in December 2023, approximately a year after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, igniting the generative AI surge.
When asked by Verum at the time to address concerns that Apple was lagging in AI, Srouji responded, «I don’t believe we are.»
Ternus added, laughing, that he was «not too concerned.»
WATCH: Apple discussed its new iPhone chips and on-device AI plans

WHAT ARE COOKIES?
Much like other businesses, we employ cookies, which are small text files stored on your computer or device when you use our Services. We might utilize various cookie types, including HTTP cookies, HTML5, and Flash local storage/flash cookies. Beyond cookies, we may also implement other tracking technologies in a similar manner, such as web beacons/GIFs, pixels, embedded scripts, ETags/cache browsers, and software development kits (collectively referred to as «Cookies»).

HOW ARE COOKIES USED?
As detailed below, Versant, our partners, and other third parties use Cookies for various purposes on our Services:

Strictly Necessary: These Cookies are essential for Service functionality, including system administration, delivering requested content and features, security and fraud prevention, identifying and resolving technical issues, authenticating your identity, and enabling purchasing capabilities. You can configure your browser to block these Cookies, but some parts of the Services may not function properly.

Information Storage and Access: These Cookies enable the storage and access to information on and across your devices, such as device identifiers, and your preferences (e.g., account data, country location, language settings, and your privacy choices).

Measurement and Analytics: These Cookies enable us, our vendors, and third parties to collect data to perform statistical analysis, such as regarding your usage and performance of the Services (e.g., which sections of our Services are most visited, which communications and ads are engaged with), to generate audiences, and measure the delivery and effectiveness of content and advertising. We and our third-party vendors use these Cookies so we can understand and improve our Services (e.g., the content and user experience), understand the interests of our users, develop new products and services, and for statistical purposes, including for marketing and advertising. They are also used to recognize you and provide further insights across platforms and devices for the above purposes.

Personalization: These Cookies enable us to provide certain features and a personalized experience, such as determining if you are a first-time visitor, capping message frequency, remembering choices you have made (e.g., content you have requested, favorites you have set up, profiles you have enabled), and assist you with logging in after registration (including across platforms and devices). These Cookies also allow your device to receive and send information, so you can see and interact with ads and content.

Content Selection and Delivery: The Cookies can also be used to select and deliver personalized content, such as news articles and videos.

Ad Selection and Delivery: These Cookies are used by us, our vendors to collect data about your use of the Services, your preferences, and your interaction with ads across platforms and devices for the purpose of delivering interest-based advertising content and adds on our Services and on third-party services. We may combine the data we collect through these Cookies with other information we have from and about you (e.g., your account data) for these purposes.

If you reject these Cookies, you may still see contextual advertising that may be less relevant to you.

Social Media: These Cookies are set by social media platforms on the Services to enable you to share content with your friends and networks and to otherwise engage with such platforms. Social media platforms have the ability to track your online activity outside of the Services. This may impact the content and messages you see on other services.

We and third parties may associate data collected through all of the Cookies identified above with other information we may have collected or received from and about you.

HOW DO I MANAGE COOKIES?
Cookie Settings: Depending on where you live, you may be able to adjust your Cookie preferences at any time via the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer or settings menu of relevant Services. You must adjust your settings on each browser or device that you use. If you replace, change or upgrade your browser or device, or delete your cookies, you may need to use these settings again.

Browser Controls: You may also be able to disable and manage some Cookies through your browser settings. If you use multiple browsers on the same device, you will need to manage your settings for each browser. Please click on any of the below browser links for instructions:

If the browser you use is not listed above, please refer to your browser’s help menu for information on how to manage cookies. Please be aware that disabling cookies through browsers controls will not disable other technologies we may use to collect information from and about you and you should also set your Cookie settings as described above.

Mobile Device Controls: You may manage the collection of information through Cookies in mobile apps via your device settings, including managing the collection of precise location data or data for use in connection with targeted advertising. Please click on any of the following for more information:

If the device you use is not listed above, please refer to your device’s help menu for information on data settings that may be available to you.

Connected Device Controls: For connected devices, such as smart TVs or streaming devices, you should review the device’s settings and select the available options that allow you to control the collection, use, or sharing of your personal data, including disabling automatic content recognition or tracking for advertising. Typically, to opt out, such devices require you to select options like “limit ad tracking” or to disable options such as “interest-based advertising,” “interactive TV,” or “smart interactivity”. These settings vary by device type.

Certain Partner-Specific Controls: Some vendors and partners we work with (including in connection with advertising, marketing, and analytics) provide individual information on their data practices and provide individual mechanisms that allow you to control your data, including:

The above are examples of our vendors and partners and this is not an exhaustive list. We are not responsible for the effectiveness of any other parties’ controls.

Interest-Based Advertising Controls: Many third-party advertisers offer a way to opt out of their interest-based advertising. For more information or to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from certain third-party advertisers, depending on your country of residence, please visit:

For certain Services, Versant participates in the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework and complies with its Specifications and Policies.

Consequences of Deactivation of Cookies: If you disable or remove Cookies, some parts of the Services may not function properly. Information may still be collected and used for other purposes, such as research, online services analytics or internal operations, and to remember your opt-out preferences.

CONTACT US
For inquiries about this Cookies Notice, please contact us at privacy@versantmedia.com or Chief Privacy Officer, Versant Legal Department, 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, USA, Versant Legal Department Attn: Chief Privacy Officer.

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
This Notice may be revised occasionally and in accordance with legal requirements. Please revisit this Cookie Notice regularly to stay informed about our and our analytic and advertising partners’ use of Cookies.»