This from the Small Street Journal:
>>PRINCE BUYS ROTTEN APPLE, AMELIO GOES SHOPPING...New York, April 1 - Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced late today that he now holds more than five percent of Apple Computer Inc. A brokerage house insider speculated that the Saudi Prince had purchased the failing computer company as a tax loss to offset enormous gains in other holdings, namely Microsoft and Intel. Apple is suffering from withering sales and a complete lack of innovation, resulting in a string of crippling losses. Only the most ardent fans of the company, blinded by minor past successes, are left holding the bag while Apple continues to lose market share and its executives struggle in vain to revive the nearly lifeless computer maker.
After the recently announced company reorganization, the second desperate attempt within the past year, many analysts threw in the towel and said they saw no hope of recovery for the doomed company. Earlier today, Jerome Dodson, manager of the San Francisco-based Parnassus Fund announced that he had dumped his entire stake of 340,000 shares in Apple Computer, which had lost more than half of their original value. "There are better ways to use our money," he said.
Last week, Oracle's Larry Ellison said he was exploring a bid to take over the long-suffering company. A source close to the Oracle CEO revealed to the Journal that Ellison is only interested in the real estate which Apple owns, the one remaining asset the company holds which has any substantial value. Property values in the Silicon Valley have skyrocketed over the past several years as California pulls itself out of a deep recession. "A few blocks from the Apple campus, you'd have to spend over a million dollars for a tiny, 2 bedroom house on a small lot," said John Slater, realtor for Colewell Banker. "I think city planners would be very amenable to re-zoning the Apple properties for residential construction, since housing is so hard to come by and land has gone through the roof. With the hiring boom over at Intel and the expansion of Microsoft's satellite offices, I get several calls a day from their executives who are relocating here and are looking for homes." Another local real estate agent said that it would indeed be ironic for Ellison, who has made no secret of his feelings towards the unstoppable Microsoft-Wintel juggernaut, to provide homes for Apple's most successful competitors. "Perhaps there is some satisfaction knowing that he is taking them for a ride in this overpriced and bloated real estate market. If you can't beat 'em, raise the cost of living and make their lives miserable!"
Faced with potential takeover attempts on two fronts, Apple Computer is actively looking for a friendly merger partner, according to several executives close to the company. One industry insider expressed doubt that anyone would want to associate themselves with a company that clearly has one of the most negative public images in the history of corporate fumbles, and deservedly so, since it has such a long track record of utter disasters. Amelio is desperately seeking a buyer for his dying company because Ellison has publicly stated that Amelio has been a complete failure and that he intends to throw him out once he takes over the soon-to-be extinct company.<<
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