Announcing figures that stunned Silicon Valley and Wall Street with the low level of profitability – just $10.6m for the quarter before charges (figures, page five), Apple Computer Inc announced that it had consolidated its operations into five business units as part of a broad restructuring to lower its cost structure. The five business units are the Personal Computer Division, where Ian Diery is appointed executive vice-president, the AppleSoft Division – formerly the Macintosh Software Architecture Division, the Apple Business Systems Division – formerly Enterprise Systems, the Personal Interactive Electronics Division, and Claris Corp. AppleSoft will be responsible for Macintosh operating systems and for developing, acquiring and selling related products. AppleSoft will also oversee licensing of its system software, and according to PC Week sources, Apple has been shopping System 7 around to makers of iAPX-86-based personal computers but has met with little interest. The woes at Apple are causing considerable anguish in Silicon Valley, where the San Jose Mercury News reports that 1,100 locals are among the 2,500 Apple is cutting worldwide. With its results announcement, Apple said it is on track to begin ships of the first Newton product this summer.
