Apple shares pie with minority-owned firms

When Apple sold $6.5 billion in bonds recently, the technology giant did something else behind the scenes that has created a buzz in Silicon Valley: It selected two minority financial services firms to take part in the debt offering, USA Today reported.

“We’re proud to have a range of banks participate in our recent debt offering, including two well-respected minority-owned companies, Williams Capital and Ramirez & Co.,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said last week.

Apple’s decision to extend financial opportunities to a Black-owned and a Latina-own firm represents unchartered territory for firms of color that offer financial service to major U.S. corporations. It also marks a conscious decision by a well-respected company to depart from the good ol’ boy network that systematically locked minority-owned firms out of money market for as long as anyone can remember.

The firms are two of six co-managers on the deal.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a former aide to the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said last week that Apple’s to share the wealth with companies that have historically been locked out of the financial arena marks the first time that a Black-owned firm and a Latino-owned firm were included in a debt offering from the world’s most valuable company.

Jackson and his Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition have been pressing Apple and other technology companies to increase diversity, not just in their employee ranks, but among their suppliers as well.

“Apple is beginning to open previously closed doors,” Jackson said in an interview. “There is more to be done, but this is a significant step. … When Apple assumes a leadership position, it begins to redirect the flow of the river.”

William Michael Cunningham, founder of investment and research consulting firm Creative Invest­ment Research, said both Williams Capital and Ramirez & Co. are “strong performers” with solid track records.

Their inclusion in the bond sale could unlock more opportunities for minority-owned financial services firms in Silicon Valley.

“This is a big deal,” Cunningham told USA Today. “This is a new market sector that these minority-owned firms have not been able to offer their services to. Everybody is going to look at this because Apple is so well run and so well managed and it will have a demonstrative impact on the rest of the tech industry.”

Last Monday’s sale was the largest U.S. high-grade corporate-bond sale so far this year. Apple has issued $32.5 billion of bonds in three offerings since April 2013, according to Bloomberg.

This article originally published in the February 9, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.