Gil Amelio, Apple’s CEO, may slash as many as 2,500 of his remaining 13,500 headcount, as Apple confirms it cannot hope to report any profits before the fourth quarter at the earliest. According to reports late Friday, the restructuring, the second in less than a year, when 1,500 were let go, comes in the wake of its worse than expected first quarter, when sales dropped 32.4% to $2.129bn and the company made a $120.0m loss. Apple spokespeople were not confirming the size of the staff cuts, only that some such move would happen within the next four weeks. Amelio also hinted to USA Today that the product that helped push John Sculley out of the door, the over-hyped Newton, may also be nixed after failing to turn a profit after three years. Other likely casualties is the Pippin, the TV Web-surfing/games player which has only been of lukewarm interest in its main market of Japan. Amelio also told the tabloid that Apple could shrink below the $8bn he was recently predicting as stability, a steep 18% below current levels, to $7.5bn. Meanwhile, as expected (CI 3088) Apple has cut US prices by up to 27% for selected products in its Power Macintosh, Macintosh Performa, AIX-based Network Server and Mac-OS-based Workgroup Servers. A high-end 9500/180MP Power Mac’s list price has dropped from $5,300 to $4,150; a Video Editing Edition Performa costs $400 less now, $2,699 instead of $2,299; and the highest costing Network Server, the 700/200, $11,800 instead of $15,300.
á
Content from our partners
