Apple Paddles On In A Smaller Red-ink Puddle

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday July 22, 1996

By SUE LOWE

APPLE Computer Corporation is still in the red, but $708 million less than it was three months ago.

The company's third quarter results showed it had clawed its way back from $740 million debit last quarter with a smaller loss of $32 million for the quarter ending June 28.

Apple did, however, benefit from an injection of $39 million as a one-time after-tax gain from its investment in America Online.

Revenues, at $2.179 billion, were marginally down on the $2.185 billion reported in March, and were 15 per cent down on that reported a year ago. Operating expenses were cut from 25.4 per cent of revenue in the March figures to 23.8 per cent of revenue this quarter. The cuts were achieved through a head-count cut of 1,815 and the closure of a US manufacturing plant.

Apple VP and chief financial officer Fred Anderson said the company had "achieved a positive shift in product mix towards higher end, higher margin desktop products and servers."

He said results would have been better were it not for "quality holds on our PowerBook backlog".

Chairman and CEO Dr Gilbert F. Amelio said Apple would continue to focus on the growth areas of multimedia and the Internet.