Blast from the Past

From the New York Times, April 30, 1997:

Head of Oracle Halts Bid to Buy Apple Computer

A quest by the chairman and chief executive of the Oracle Corporation, Lawrence J. Ellison, to acquire Apple Computer Inc. came to an abrupt — if temporary — halt late today, when he issued a statement saying that for the moment he had decided not to buy the troubled computer maker.

But in a one-paragraph statement, issued from Mr. Ellison’s Atherton, Calif., home, the billionaire software entrepreneur, raised as many questions as it answered.

While saying that Mr. Ellison had not purchased any Apple stock nor entered into negotiations with Apple executives, the statement added that he might reconsider a takeover at a later date:

”Mr. Ellison stated that he remains interested in developments at Apple and that he may well purchase stock for investment purposes or otherwise, or revisit in the future his decision regarding an acquisition or control of that firm,” the statement said. Mr. Ellison was traveling out of the country and could not be reached for comment today.

Analysts questioned whether Mr. Ellison had ever seriously intended a takeover.

”He played the media like a symphony conductor,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a San Jose, Calif., computer industry consulting firm.

Noting Mr. Ellison’s crusade for less-expensive desktop machines called network computers, Mr. Bajarin said, ”He talked about making the Macintosh into a network-computer platform, and that didn’t make any sense.”

There had been talk among industry executives in recent weeks that Mr. Ellison had succeeded in getting commitments for at least $700 million in his bid, but that he had wanted a $1.6 billion war chest.

Other people on Wall Street said that Mr. Ellison had failed to execute a cohesive hostile takeover strategy. Such hostile takeovers are rare in high technology because the assets are frequently the employees, who can leave in the event of a takeover.

Mr. Ellison’s statement was released after the stock market closed. Earlier, shares of Apple closed up 6.25 cents, at $17.6875, in Nasdaq trading.

In March, Mr. Ellison touched off a lively drama in Silicon Valley after he said he was planning to lead an effort to take over Apple and place his friend and the co-founder of Apple, Steven P. Jobs, on the board.

The next day, however, Mr. Jobs denied any knowledge of the plan. Mr. Jobs has returned to Apple as an adviser after selling his company Next Software Inc. to Apple.

The $17.6875 needs to be adjusted for two 2-for-1 stock splits, so at the time, AAPL was going for $4.42 per share.

Posted by on August 14th, 2013 at 4:31 pm


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