Wither Steve Jobs?
Chuq Von Rospach
(rumor has it sales and sales support -- since they are shifting a lot of
corporate sales back into the dealer network this might make sense). VERY
suprising, though, was an announcement that Steve Jobs was being moved into
a position 'with out and direct responsibility' (I THINK that was the
quote). Evidently Sculley has decided Steve can cause more harm than good
and made him muckey-muck without portfolio. Most details when I see them,
but this is VERY interesting....
chuq
--
:From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chu...@decwrl.ARPA
This space for rent. Political, religious and racist quotes need not apply.
Sam Chin
An interesting report on Apple in Business Week (6/10) says that several of
Apples top management have been selling their Apple shares. Some of them
were :
Seller Date Shares Total Price
------ ---- ------ -----------
A.C. Markulla,Jr (vice chairman) Jan. 30 500,000 $15,062,500
Kenneth R. Zerbe (general manager) Jan. 28 200,000 $ 6,000,000
Joseph A. Graziano (Chief Financial Jan. 22 46,000 $ 1,340,000
Officer)
Delbert W. Yocam (General Manager, Feb. 14 35,000 $ 998,975
Apple II div.)
...etc
Wozniak who left early in the year sold 3 million of his shares. Last
quarters profits were only 16 cents per share. Apple is seeking new talent
and has hired a new director of marketing for ts Apple II. He is Michael
K. Lorelli, formerly a marketeer with International Playtex Inc's tampon
group (seriously!).
Sam Chin
tsc2597.acf4@nyu
Chuq Von Rospach
Well, I have an update to my previous posting for people who don't read the
paper. Steve Jobs has been relieved of all day-to-day management
responsibilities by John Sculley. There has also been a major
reorganization at Apple -- the Apple II and Macintosh groups have been
dissolved and reformed on project lines (i.e a hardware tech could go from
a IIc project to a Mac project, which never happened before). Steve Jobs,
as I like to put it, has been made executive VP in charge of writing
reports that nobody is in charge of reading... (*grin, steve, grin!*)
Actually, the San Jose Mecury News said that Jobs was about to leave on an
extended European business/pleasure trip, and that when he returns he will
settle down into a position of defining what it means to be Apple, or some
such. Reading between the lines it sounds like he has been promoted to
executive PR and corporate cheerleader.
Local press seems to be covering this event as both inevitable and a
positive move for Apple. They cite problems with Jobs trying force the
buying public in his position instead of trying to put together a product
line that would sell (an example is the Macintosh fileserver, which Jobs
was against and Sculley forced into development anyway). There are also
comments about his stubborness and some of the personality conflicts that
have been going on at Apple.
Well, speaking for myself, I'm sorry to see the split between Apple and the
people that made Apple what it is and the people who are going to try to
keep it there. Apple, for those that don't remember, went from a garage
startup to Fortune 500 in seven years -- this feat is not only unique in
the history of business but will likely never be equalled. It takes a very
strong person to get a company bootstrapped, but it takes a much different
type of person to keep a company alive when the massive growth stops.
Overall, I think the move is good for Apple. There has been a drain of
needed resources recently (Wozniak is gone, and Apple has been losing other
key people here and there); partially because of conflicts with Jobs;
partially because of other factors. A lot of the turnover was in the Apple
II ranks because, while they generate the majority of Apple's income and
sales, they were being glossed over by the high PR Macintosh group. The
reorganization should go far to heal these wounds and get the company
pulling together again. I hope that bringing in the sales and marketing
experience from the II group will bring pricing marketing in line on the
Mac. With the Amiga and the vaporware Atari that keeps getting rumored,
Apple is going to have to become more competive and more cognizant of their
customers to continue their successes. By getting their resources to
cooperate instead of compete, hopefully we'll see better products faster
for BOTH the II and the Mac.
If it is handled well, I think Apple will come out of this a stronger and
better company. The only potential catch is that Jobs holds 13% of the
stock, and if he decides to 'take his toys and go home' by unloading, then
Apple definitely becomes a strong target for a merger or takeover. VArious
companies, from GE to Dec, have been rumored to be interested, but the
wrong company could kill the golden goose (if it is possible for the
environment that makes Apple Apple to survive under the wing of a more
traditional company management. Apple gets bought by IBM, and the
programmers start wearing ties??? right...)
Apple is in the process of changing from a startup company to a company
that plans on being in the game 20 years from now. If it works, we have a
long time competitor for IBM in the small machine market. If not, start
practicing your MS-DOS... I think they're in good shape, though...
he...@rochester.uucp
>_________________________________
>Subject: Wither Steve Jobs?
>From: chu...@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
>Path: seismo!nsc!chuqui
> ... VERY
>suprising, though, was an announcement that Steve Jobs was being moved into
>a position 'with out and direct responsibility' (I THINK that was the
>quote). Evidently Sculley has decided Steve can cause more harm than good
>and made him muckey-muck without portfolio. Most details when I see them,
>but this is VERY interesting....
>
>chuq
Maybe now we'll see an "open" Mac and a truly fast hard disk (ie no
more serial port nonsense), all those things that Jobs thought were a
bad idea...
---- Henry Kautz
:uucp: {seismo|allegra}!rochester!henry
:arpa: henry@rochester
:mail: Dept. of Comp. Sci., U. of Rochester, NY 14627
:phone: (716) 275-5766
Jeff Meyer
>[...]Apple is seeking new talent
>and has hired a new director of marketing for ts Apple II. He is Michael
>K. Lorelli, formerly a marketeer with International Playtex Inc's tampon
>group (seriously!).
This should bring about some rather interesting changes in advertising
styles, to wit:
Mainframe protection from a maxi-processor.
Software protection you can trust.
Other changes will be a counterparts to IBM's Charlie Chaplin, namely Cathy
Rigby & Brenda Vaccaro. Also, new cover art for the Apple IIc has been
commisioned to stress portability -- paintings of women in nighties running
along a beach with a IIc in one hand.
However, the culmination of this new idealogy will occur in two years, when
Apple plans to come out with the ultimate in engineering and marketing
sophistication: a disposable Macintosh, packed in a cardboard tube. A
notice will be printed on the side of the box warning not to attempt
flushing it down the toilet in areas with low water pressure.
--------
Oh, dear, I bet I get flamed for this....
"When in doubt, tell the truth."
Mark Twain
"When in doubt, book 'em."
Steve McGarret, Five-O
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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Capt. Vandervecken
Not bad, and I own an apple ][c. Most Interesting thing I've seen on the net.
flame lately.
Two points!
Dennis Michaels @ U.C. Davis
'Gravity, its not just a good idea, its the Law'