Tim Cook is a smart man. Suing lends credence to the story.
Also, he probably does not feel Bloomberg had any malice toward Apple in their story. By not suing, he is just calling the reporters overzealous idiots.
Never attribute malice that which may be explained by stupidity. You just do not sue stupid.
Discovery would be fascinating for sure. For both parties. But Bloomberg can shield themselves behind anonymous sources who will likely never come forward. "Well, we're simply reporting what we were told..."
At some point this gets to be about credibility. Apple has a LOT, especially when it comes to privacy. They stood up to the FBI 100%. Bloomberg BusinessWeek? Not a perfect record, to say the least.
Given what I've read so far, I'm increasingly skeptical of the core story. Something happened a couple
I was reading in Ars Technica an article about Russian spies hacking athlete's doping test results. In the comment section someone I suspect to be a Russian troll was expressing mild outrage at the fact that Ars ran an article on that subject but hadn't yet mentioned anything about the Chinese chip hacking conspiracy, linking to the Bloomberg article. Both the quasi-science-fiction Bloomberg article allegations and the circumstances that led me to read it make me suspicious that it is probably fabricated. I
... he would be suing, not asking for a retraction.
Tim Cook is a smart man. Suing lends credence to the story.
Also, he probably does not feel Bloomberg had any malice toward Apple in their story. By not suing, he is just calling the reporters overzealous idiots.
Never attribute malice that which may be explained by stupidity. You just do not sue stupid.