Pretty standard (and smart) timing of the announcement. They release it while the media is focused on Sandy and the election so the minimum amount of scrutiny will be placed on Apple.

One of the biggest questions about Tim Cook was whether he could keep the management team together. Now one of the longest serving and most importance pieces of that unit is leaving. Whether or not it was a good decision, the market is going to interpret this negatively and they'll be scared there will be more of this.

If this were good news this is the last time Apple would have released it...