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

To: Moominoid who wrote (10698)	4/1/1998 9:10:00 PM
From: Phillip C. Lee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213176

David, If the news will be so great why doesn't Steve Jobs sign on and take his share options at an exercies price equal to the current market price. From what you said above, I think you don't know the situation. First, if you have read proxy, you would notice that all executives were ex-NeXT employees. Who can control this situation besides Jobs? Second, even Jobs wants the deal, he needs completely willingness from shareholders. Either approve 17m shares or disapprove it will be determined by 4/22. After approval, then it will be his turn to accept or not. Therefore, he doesn't need to accept the deal before votes. Third, it's just opposite of what you think - he wants to prove his Q2 will win the final approval for such shares. The shareholders not only appreciate him on the good job done for Q2, but also are willingly support this generous package. He will win beautifully and nobody will critize even from Dr. Gil. Phil

To: Moominoid who wrote (10698)	4/1/1998 10:01:00 PM
From: George von Dassow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213176

David says: If the news will be so great why doesn't Steve Jobs sign on and take his share options at an exercise price equal to the current market price. Maybe he's hoping to get those options at an exercise price of $13 or whatever? I am not confident of my interpretation of the proxy (in other words, someone else who understands it please elaborate), but it is my impression from it that Jobs can be granted those options by the board even if he stays interim, and also I don't think from it that he can get any old excercise price. I might be wrong. Also, Woolard's and Campbell's recent comments to the press seem rather like they don't give a hoot when they have a bona fide CEO, and in fact would rather have an interim Steve than a permanent anybody else. Personally, I don't get the excitement about the CEO. Everybody knows who's running the company, and IMHO when I read some analyst or journalist going on about how the presumed uncertainty affects the company, blah blah blah, I think they're just offering an excuse for reticence. (Imagine the future: "How did you miss out on AAPL in the spring of 98?" "Well, you know, they didn't even have a real CEO... I was worried"; or on the other hand "Boy, when everyone else was on the bandwagon about AAPL, you held back, and aren't you glad not to have taken that long ride down." "Yeah, well, it was pretty telling that Jobs wouldn't commit... I was concerned"). Not that I blame any of the analysts for reticence; I would not be thrilled, if I were in that position, to recommend AAPL in public at the going rate of 27.50 a chip, not because I don't expect it to go up but because I know the stock has defied levity, shall we say, in the past. This echoes David's point about people expecting another disappointment... would I want to buy today if I hadn't gotten in around 15? Hell no, I bought calls, and if AAPL heads down more than a little I'm buying puts, too. And nothing Apple could possibly announce between now and the 15th (short of telling us something about earnings) is going to move the stock, I expect (though I hope I'm wrong). Quicktime 3 and a curvaceous (lumpy?) all-in-one mac just ain't gonna get rid of any of the skepticism out there. BTW, as a shareholder, I'm thrilled they're charging for Quicktime. And as a bigtime user of Quicktime, I'm thrilled they're only charging 30 bucks. Why the heck is there so much noise on the web Mac-rags about it? I think Apple should keep it up. I'll pay, and so will most people who use it. And the licensing fees that developers and Apple Recon (I'm ashamed to admit I read it) have been making noise about: a buck or two a copy? Waived if you include what basically amounts to an ad? Whoopee! If that kind of price puts any content developers out of business, they deserve it. I'd say of the 5 or 6 dozen CDs I've gotten over the last year for everything from software to games to junk that I find in my mailbox, excluding CDs from Apple, perhaps half had a copy of quicktime. Assuming that the licensing cuts that by half, and 3 out of 4 developers accept the waiver conditions, and further assuming I'm roughly typical of 5 million of the 25 million mac users out there with respect to software consumption, that means something like 50 million a year in licensing fees. Assuming maybe a third of the mac users out there hear about quicktime by seeing the little ad that developers have to include to get the fees waived, and if only 1 in 5 decide they want the pro version, that's another 50 million. I'm probably not the only shareholder who'd like to see Apple get another quarter million every quarter by charging for something that used to be free. Oh, and I completely forgot about Windows users. How many of them are there, anyway, and what's the penetration of Quicktime? I hear even Microsoft recommends it now. - George

To: Moominoid who wrote (10698)	4/2/1998 10:37:00 AM
From: Andon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213176

Close today at $26 3/4. Maybe there's a hole in the "proverbial floor"? VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV It has also hit the proverbial 'floor.' My sense is that we've hit an equilibrium point similar to the one we hit in Sept-Oct 97, after the stock had settled down from the Microsoft announcement. At that time, the stock traded between $22 and $24. We're in the same pattern now, trading between $26 and $28. I think you are exactly right as I've posted on this thread before using my own "amateur TA". By equilibrium I mean that the market, as a whole, thinks that this is roughly the right price for AAPL, until further news. Right on. The earnings report on the 15th is the biggie My interpretation of this pattern is that a lot of people think it will be disappointing just like last October and the price will fall. If the news will be so great why doesn't Steve Jobs sign on and take his share options at an exercise price equal to the current market price. Maybe he's hoping to get those options at an exercise price of $13 or whatever? David