The Doctor’s Strong Medicine
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press that he was again considering making a run at Apple and indicated he
had lined up a group of investors that would be willing to back him if he
decided to go forward with the plan. Apple’s investment bankers informed
Amelio there was little they could do to prevent Ellison from taking over
if he made a reasonable offer for Apple. The thing that didn’t make sense
was that most hostile takeover attempts are kept quiet; Amelio suspected
that Ellison’s true motive was to shake the board’s condence in the job
he was doing as CEO.
On March 25, Amelio met with the board to beg for an increase in
advertising spending to prop up sales, which were down drastically and
showed no immediate signs of recovery. The ...