Former Apple Computer Inc chief financial officer Joseph Graziano has gone on the record with the San Jose Mercury News on talks about the company being acquired. He says that Sun Microsystems Inc started talks with Apple around October 1995 but walked away in January 1996 when it discovered the depth of the company’s problems, and that talks for IBM Corp to buy the company in 1994 fizzled out because of resistance from then chief executive Michael Spindler. He says that as well as talking to Sun, Apple was toying with the idea of luring IBM back to the bargaining table, and Spindler was also in preliminary talks with Philips Electronics NV and Toshiba Corp to acquire Apple. He traces the most pressing problems back to the autumn of 1995 when Spindler raised production 30% for the holiday selling season only to arrive in January with mountains of unsold inventory. Graziano says he insisted at the time that the plans were unrealistic and could sink Apple. As for the present, former Apple Computer Inc finance chief Joseph Graziano reckons that the board is now grasping at straws, in agreeing to pay $400m for Steve Jobs’ company, NeXT Software Inc. It’s good for Steve, and I’m glad for him, but I think it’s too late even for Steve to save it, he said, I don’t see any scenario where Apple becomes a profit- making company.
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