EXCLUSIVES

"The biggest mistake I had made-I would list as the fatal mistakewas allowing myself to be hammered into predicting when apple would become profitable ... by yielding to pressure from the board, I set in place a false expectation and an innacurate yardstick to measure my performance ...I created the beginning of the end."

Soon after, Apple Chief Financial Officer Fred Andersonhired by Ameliosaid the company will stop projecting when it will stop losing money.

Amelio and Apple's board had spent, according to accounts, the better part of six board meetings discussing modifications to his private jet while thousands of employees were being laid off. New, lavish executive offices were being built while the company's losses passed the $1.6 billion mark.

"The litany of misdeeds is so long, I'd need an hour to name them, said Seymour Merrin, president of Merrin Information Services Inc. In palo alto. all (Amelio) succeeded in doing was create an us-vs.-them attitude between upper-management and employees. he was accusing employees of not doing their jobs.''

Amelio also gives some of the blame for his ouster to Board members and friends (and current Board Members) Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison, and Ellison's much-publicized "alleged" attempted takeover. Amelio wonders aloud in Firing Line whether the attempted takeover shook confidence in Apple's management just enough to allow Jobs to return as White Knight. He also wonders whether or not that was Ellison and Jobs' plan all along.

Although some gave Amelio high marks for cutting costs, trimming Apple's unwieldy product line and shoring up relations with developers and corporate customers, one flustered developer said his forced resignation was the most positive event in the past year at Apple. He was nothing more than a suit, a hand-shaker.

Joe Graziano, said he was not surprised by the resignation - only by its timing.

"I figured he would last until the end of the year, when it becomes painfully apparent the mac platform has hit its peak and begins falling like a rock, Graziano said."

"He didn't have a clue and didn't ask anyone for help, Merrin said. In the end, he spent all of his time in his big office, insisting he be called 'doctor.' It was an ego running rampant, and he was obsessed with his perks."

The Price is Right > Apple's most recent proxy statement, as of press time, which is available from Apple's Web site as a Portable Document Format file, also reviews details on stock holdings and compensation for a who's who of Apple directors and executives.

Steve Jobs himself holds the most common stock among Apple's elite, with 5,020,001 shares. Senior Vice President for Worldwide Sales Mitchell Mandich and Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations Timothy D. Cook were a distant second and third with 197,980 and 175,000 shares, respectively. Salary reported for top executives in 1999 ranged from $1 for Jobs to $605,260 for Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Fred D. Anderson.

Also in the filing, the company proposed an amendment to Apple's articles of incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock from 320,000 to 900,000. Apple also revealed that in 1999 it paid "approximately $102,865" to Wing & a Prayer, a company wholly owned by Oracle's Ellison, for air transportation of Apple executives.

Board members are forbidden to earn a cash salary for their position, but Ellison, Jobs friend, has found his way around that.

Board membership, it would appear, has its perks.

Changing of The Guard > Edgar S. Woolard Jr., chairman of the board of directors at E.I. duPont De Nemours and Co. Woolard has since stepped down. He was the last remaining Board member who predates The Second Coming of Steve Jobs in 1997. Woolard was a candidate for CEO in 1997 and although he was deferential in the press on the Boards decision to go with Jobs and, most recently defended Jobs $50 million dollar Gulfstream jet, he is not as close to Jobs as the other Board members.

Few Organizations have had as colorful and checkered a past as The Apple Board. At times their story resembles the rise and fall of The Roman Emperors. Although the future is difficult to foresee, one thing is for certain: with Woodlards resignation, Steve Jobs is clearly in the drivers seat at Apple.