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Fred: No News Is Good News (9/6/01)
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Okay, so Compaq sold out to Hewlett-Packard, Gateway is on its last legs, and Motorola keeps hacking away at its headcount in a desperate bid to become profitable again. Nearly every tech company (and no small share of non-tech ones) is cancelling acquisitions, closing plants, laying off workers, selling out to bigger fish, or just plain closing its doors. Meanwhile, the stock market continues its plunge to scary new depths, which comes as little surprise amid this sort of financial turmoil. Economic prosperity? That is such a last-millennium concept.
So how's Apple faring during this extended session of economic carnage? For the answer, look no further than Fred Anderson, Apple's Chief Financial Officer (that's business-speak for "main money dude"). Fred is widely credited with being a major force in Apple's miraculous comeback from the brink of oblivion in the mid-'90s, so he is clearly a man you want in your corner during... challenging times like these. And according to MacCentral, Fred mentioned at the Salomon Smith Barney Tech2001 Conference that he has nothing new to report-- a fact which should have Apple watchers (not to mention Apple investors) heaving massive sighs of relief.
In times like this, aside from announcing that it bought the winning PowerBall ticket, the only reason Apple would open its yap about financial matters would be to issue one of those earnings warnings that's all the rage these days-- so unless you're the sort of ghoul who thrives on impending beleaguerment, no news is most definitely good news. Nonetheless, Fred did reiterate certain happy facts about Apple's financial well-being, including Apple's inventory having shrunk to under four weeks and the company's stockpile of cash having increased-- not decreased, but increased-- another $200 million this fiscal year. On top of that, Apple's earlier prediction of a retail break-even quarter in December still stands, as does the expectation of posting a "slight sequential increase in revenues and earnings per share in the September quarter." To sum up? "Apple, quite, frankly, has been a cash machine," sayeth His Fredness.
Now, you have to decide for yourselves whether Fred was speaking metaphorically or he accidentally let slip a bit of info on Apple's next consumer-oriented killer app, "iATM." Personally, we at AtAT have always felt online banking to be a bit of a dud, but if Apple has achieved the holy grail-- a method by which a customer can withdraw funds online and get cash straight out of the slot in the front of his iMac-- then we can hardly wait. Best of all, can the technology that will allow us to download a pizza be far behind?
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 9/6/01 episode: September 6, 2001: Motorola issues another earnings warning and announces still more layoffs. Meanwhile, Fred Anderson reports that Apple's still looking pretty rosy-cheeked, despite the current state of the economy, and the Department of Justice (under new management) announces that it's no longer seeking a Microsoft breakup in the "Redmond Justice" case...
Other scenes from that episode: 3287: Kinda Like Picking At A Scab (9/6/01) Here at AtAT, we don't claim to possess any actual journalistic training, know-how, or ethics (particularly ethics), but we've picked up a few things about reporting over the years by watching reruns of "Murphy Brown" and the "Scoop" Brady episode of "The Brady Bunch."... 3289: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (9/6/01) Sorry, "Redmond Justice" fans; if you longed to hear the pitter-patter of little feet after Microsoft was cleft into two or more Babysofts, it may in fact be time to let the dream die. We already knew that the Appeals Court tossed out Judge Jackson's order that Microsoft be split into two organisms, not because it disagreed with Jackson's ruling that the Redmond Beast wielded monopoly power and had illegally abused that power, but because Jackson himself had been a naughty little judge and had granted interviews to the press before the case was over...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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