QUAKES IN CUPERTINO

By John Greenwald

THE TREMORS THAT HAVE BEEN SHAKing troubled Apple Computer for more than a month turned into quakes last week--but the upheaval left many observers confused. All last Friday the company kept silent amid a blizzard of news reports that its board had ousted chief executive officer Michael Spindler and chairman Mike Markkula. Their replacement was said to be Gilbert Amelio, an Apple director and chairman and CEO of chipmaker National Semiconductor. The speculation became a continuous buzz when it was learned that Amelio had abruptly quit National Semiconductor. But it was hours before Apple released a brief statement confirming Amelio's arrival and Spindler's departure, and noting that Markkula, an Apple cofounder, was returning to the post of vice chairman.

But what did the shake-up mean? Most Silicon Valley analysts took it as a signal that Apple, which lost $69 million in the fourth quarter of last year, had abandoned its behind-the-scenes effort to merge with Sun Microsystems, at least for now. (Sun was reportedly offering a meager $23 a share for Apple stock, which closed last week at 291/4.) "Amelio's history shows that he emphasizes turning around companies, not selling them off," says consultant Tim Bajarin of Santa Clara, California.

A turnaround would be no small task. The German-born Spindler, 53, known as "the Diesel" for his drive, was himself brought in as a miracle worker by Markkula, when Apple's share of the personal-computer market hovered at 9.4%. Now it is just 7.8%. The company was hard hit last year by the arrival of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, which mimics the look and feel of Apple's Macintosh computers but runs on IBM-compatible machines that are cheaper.

Amelio, 52, seems a plausible choice as Apple's next savior. When he arrived at National Semiconductor in 1991, the company was nearly bankrupt. Last year it reported record profits of $264 million on sales of $2.4 billion. Amelio chopped the 33,000-employee work force by nearly one-third, closed or sold five of the company's 14 factories and devised a business strategy that streamlined its products.

A strategy is what Apple desperately needs. Under Spindler, the company constantly flirted with expensive new projects while its core business swooned. Apple is laying off 1,300 of its 14,500 workers as part of a restructuring Spindler launched last month but which was clearly not seen as enough. Some experts doubt that Amelio will have better luck. "The change of guard gives the appearance of a fresh start, but Amelio cannot change the fundamentals of the company," says Richard Shaffer, editor of Technologic Partners Newsletter. Apple is trapped as a niche player in the very PC market it helped create, he says. In other words, watch for the ground to shake further.

--By John Greenwald. Reported by David S. Jackson/San Francisco

With reporting by David S. Jackson/San Francisco