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

To: Phillip C. Lee who wrote (10298)	3/27/1998 8:45:00 PM
From: Linda Kaplan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213186

Headline: Apple Director Confirms Board Wants Jobs To Keep CEO Title ====================================================================== NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A member of Apple Computer Inc.'s board of directors confirmed that the board wants interim Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs to remain CEO on a permanent basis and that the board hasn't given Jobs a deadline to make a decision on his status. Edgar Woolard, the Apple board member who last summer led the ouster of former Appple CEO Gilbert Amelio, told Dow Jones Friday that the board has decided to let Jobs stay on as CEO for as long as he likes. "He is the CEO," Woolard said. "Whether we call him interim or not interim is a nonissue with us. We hope he will stay a long time." Woolard's comments came after the board met earlier this week to review a number of matters, including pressing Jobs to accept their twice-sweetened offer to become the permanent CEO. Jobs, who cofounded Apple, has been running the company on an interim basis amid mounting speculation that he will accept the repeated offers. Jobs, however, has expressed a reluctance to make that commitment given responsibilities to his family and to his other company, Pixar Animation Studios. More recently, though, Jobs has indicated to the board that he is managing to maintain a better balance in his life after assembling a new management team at Apple. People familiar with the situation say he probably will take the job now that he can delegate more of his Apple duties. Woolard, the former CEO of DuPont Co., asked Jobs to temporarily take over Apple after the board removed Amelio amid a worsening downturn at the company. Although Apple's sales and share of the personal computer market have continued to decline, Jobs has restored the company to modest profitability and refocused it to compete in its core publishing and education markets. The strategy has heartened Wall Street, as Apple's shares have more than doubled from $13.25 last July. "The turnaround that he has led has been absolutely phenomenal," Woolard said. The San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this week that the Apple board has two outside candidates willing to serve as CEO under Jobs should he decide to become chairman instead of CEO. Board members want Jobs to take a lucrative package that includes options to acquire about six million shares, plus one million shares of restricted stock, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. Jobs would end up with more than 5% of the computer concern's 130 million shares outstanding. But to keep Jobs indefinitely, the Apple board may have to offer more stock options or propose other sweeteners. During the latest pay talks, Jobs repeatedly insisted that most options be priced below the market rate, but eventually dropped the demand. Discounted stock options would dismay investors as a sign that he lacks confidence in the long struggling company's turnaround prospects. Earlier this month, Jobs insisted that Apple remained actively engaged in its protracted search for a new CEO. But expectations that Jobs will keep the job swelled two weeks ago when Apple recruited a top Compaq Computer Corp. executive to run its manufacturing and distribution operations. The appointment of Timothy Cook as Apple's senior vice president of world-wide operations fills a vacancy left by the Oct. 15 resignation of James McCluney. The appointment completed Jobs's makeover of Apple's top management since he took over and gives him a strong support staff. Copyright (c) 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.