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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Yang who wrote (7782)	1/15/1998 10:40:00 PM
From: Jurgen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

Apple's next CEO: Chainsaw Al By Charles Cooper January 15, 1998 ZDNN Apple Computer's crack headhunters have spent seven months scouring the earth for a new chief executive. My spies in Cupertino say the latest offer includes free granola bars, all the popcorn you can eat, and quality time with Silicon Valley's lovable Bobbsey Twins, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison. Unfortunately, Apple hasn't found anyone dumb enough to sign on the dotted line. So, in the absence of a permanent leader, "acting" CEO Jobs has kept Apple's Moonies at bay by offering up a recycled diet of feel-good mantras and yuppie smugness that says, yes, we are better than them. Maybe Jobs likes the job so much he's planning to stay a lot longer. When reporter Bruce Francis of CNBC last week asked him for an update on the CEO search, Jobs abruptly walked out of the interview. But in keeping with the holiday spirit, I'm going to do Apple a big favor: If anyone's willing to listen, I'm going to serve up the dream candidate -- no finder's fee required -- on a silver platter: "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap. You mean the slice-and-dice, ex-paratrooper; the guy dismissed by critics as a self-promoting Rambo who parachutes into troubled companies, fires thousands of workers and then reaps financial bonanzas when he walks away a couple of years later? The same. After the dismal performance turned in by "Dr." Gil Amelio, the self-styled turnaround expert who was turned out the door last July, does Apple really need another scorched-earth specialist? After all, the company Wednesday eked out a respectable $47 million profit, and officials are talking confidently of sustaining profitability in 1998. But Apple turned a profit in no small part because it cut expenses by about $200 million in the last year. Jobs is again talking the talk, but the Zen of the Mac -- the "ain't we cool" routine -- is sadly retro. If Apple's going to reverse gear and gain market share, it's going to need to live up to its "Think Different" advertising motto. And unlike the empty suits who have rented the executive suite in Cupertino over the years, Dunlap has a demonstrated talent for thinking differently. Fresh from engineering successful rescues at Lily-Tulip, Crown Zellerbach, and Scott Paper (where he fired 11,200 workers before selling the company to Kimberly Clark Corp. for $7 billion in 1995), he took over 18 months ago at Sunbeam, a once-mighty brand that had all but turned into another basket case en route to oblivion. It wasn't pretty. Dunlap closed 16 factories and all but one headquarters building while ordering the dismissal of 6,000 employees. But unlike the prolonged agony at Apple -- measured in years -- Dunlap put away the ax after seven months and has already put the company back on track. Sunbeam's stock, which was $12.50 when Dunlap began, now trades at around $40. The company, which has broken into 20 new overseas markets, now expects to double operating earnings by next year. OK, so he's not Albert Schweitzer, and I don't think I'd enjoy working for this guy. But Apple needs a lot more than tough love. When IBM hired a new CEO, it looked outside the computer industry to Lou Gerstner, a marketing whiz (RJR Nabisco, American Express, McKinsey & Co.) with a proven track record. A lot of ink has been spilled about how blue-chip candidates wouldn't feel comfortable working in Jobs' shadow. No problemo: I'm certain Dunlap has more than enough steel in his shorts to keep potentially meddling soft bellies on the board from gumming up the works. I can hear him now: "Steve, get the hell outta my face or I'm going to jam this PowerBook up your wazoo!" One thing is certain: You wouldn't catch Dunlap pulling stupid stunts -- such as walking out of live television interviews because he was afraid to answer a simple question.

To: Eric Yang who wrote (7782)	1/17/1998 1:23:00 PM
From: Eric Yang	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213173

I take it that most of you have read that Recon piece regarding market movement on Jan 9th. They outright proclaimed that they were responsible for brining back AAPL from an earlier dip. Yeah...right. First off, I'm not even sure which stock they were watching because as I remember it, AAPL hit a intra-day high of just above 19 1/2 (19 3/8 or so), but the folks at Recon claim that 15 min after posting their update on the 9th the stock went to 20 3/8. If AAPL hit a intra-day high of 20 3/8 on Friday of the 9th I would know about it. I don't want to sound like an ass and be proven wrong later so those of you who follow the stock closely please confirm this. The whole "reverse the momentum" story is really quite outrageous. First on Jan 6th Recon said that it has the so called "news" that if released would reverse the direction of AAPL. AAPL was fluctuating wildly after Jobs announcement hitting 19s and dipping down to 17s. So they've essentially set themselves up to take the credit for any major move in the stock. But the break into 20s or dip to low teens never happened. AAPL stabilized above 19 on the 8th and on the 9th there was the typical early morning sell off followed by heavy buying later in the session. Now Apple Recon is saying that they must be responsible for the recovery to 19s because the market as a whole had a pretty bad day on the 9th. and went on to say "RFI did its part to cool things off with The Street and now the rest is up to Apple." Talk about "let go my ego". Wake up! AAPL movement has been decoupled with the rest of the market since the beggining of this year. I know the Recon guys read SI and so here's my advice to them... Stick with the facts. Your report/summary of the conference call was not bad. As for all those crappy cryptic stories, only newbies would fall for them. They are clearly the work of a delusional man. Do us all a big favor and seek professional help. For me, investing in AAPL is very educational and fun. I have to read and keep up with all sources of information...and unfortunately that means having to read the crap coming from Recon on a weekly basis and deal with the urge to vomit all over my 1710AV. I don't know why I'm taking this so seriously or personally but I think what Recon is doing is really an injustice. Everytime I see Recon being quoted by great sites such as MacNN and As the Apple Turns, I see hundreds of Mac users fall for Recon's tricks. After all many of them don't know enough about AAPL (the stock) to distingish facts from fiction. Sorry to take up so much bandwidth. Injustice boils my blood. It's this trait of mine that made me love the Mac so much in the first place. Companies like MSFT and INTC dominating the computer market is perhaps the biggest injustice in the technology world today. Eric