Apple Corporate

Despite public statements to the contrary, Apple did lay off around 50 enterprise salespeople last week, CNET News has learned.

Sources who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal confirmed reports by Valleywag and 9to5Mac.com that roughly 50 salespeople were let go by the company for "business and economic reasons," according to one source. An entire sales group based in Austin, Texas, was let go as well as workers in Cupertino, Calif., where Apple is headquartered. Those affected were given severance packages and the opportunity to apply for other jobs inside Apple.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling, … Read more

For the second time in a week, Apple has denied rumors that it has laid off workers.

On Friday, Valleywag reported that a tipster informed it of layoffs in the Mac Hardware and Pro Applications group, describing Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters as having "lots of security around" and saying "it seems like a lot" of employees were affected. Earlier in the week Valleywag published a similar report that 50 sales employees were laid off from Apple.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling denied both reports Friday. "It's not true," he said, referring to the … Read more

Few reporters who cover Apple should be surprised to learn that it is a rather secretive and controlling company.

Most of us who regularly follow Apple are accustomed to rolling our eyes and chuckling at the bizarre restrictions company representatives sheepishly try to enforce at its events, such as requiring an escort for reporters who want to walk 100 yards away from the press room down a huge open hallway to use the bathroom at the Moscone Center, lest they ask Steve Jobs what he thinks of the Kindle, or something. It was therefore a bit surprising Wednesday to read … Read more

CUPERTINO, Calif.--Apple's first annual shareholder meeting in more than 10 years without founder and CEO Steve Jobs was largely uneventful, as COO Tim Cook and board members stepped in to handle questions regarding Apple's disclosure of Jobs' health.

Five shareholder proposals were considered, and only the one approving the re-election of Apple's eight existing board members was approved in preliminary voting. As in past years, the informal question-and-answer section was by far more interesting, although without Jobs' usual acerbic replies to institutional shareholders on soapboxes, a little duller.

For the record, Apple shareholders rejected proposals that … Read more

Apple has confirmed that CEO Steve Jobs will miss Wednesday's annual shareholder meeting for the first time since he returned in 1997 to the company he co-founded, Bloomberg has reported.

Jobs is currently on a medical leave of absence until the end of June to deal with unspecified health issues that have caused him to lose a significant amount of weight over the last year, so his absence is not a total surprise.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook is running the show in Jobs' absence and will likely serve as master of ceremonies for the meeting Wednesday morning at … Read more

A federal judge is letting Mac clone maker Psystar amend its legal defense against Apple.

Psystar was delivered a blow in November, when Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court in Northern California dismissed Psystar's antitrust claims against the Cupertino, Calif.-based Mac maker. The antitrust suit was a response to a copyright and trademark infringement suit Apple filed in July against Psystar, whose OpenComputers are designed to run the Mac OS X operating system.

In its amended complaint, Psystar accuses Apple of copyright misuse, as well as unfair competition violations based on its alleged copyright misuse. … Read more

Apple has reached a $22.5 million settlement agreement in the class action iPod Nano scratch lawsuit and potential claimants began receiving settlement notices this week, according to the plaintiffs attorney.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2005 in a California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, alleges Apple's iPod Nano is prone to scratches and its alleged defects were not disclosed by the company.

A $22.5 million cash settlement agreement was reached in late October and a court has preliminarily approved the agreement, said the plaintiffs attorney. But it wasn't until this week that notices of the … Read more

Apple made it clear on its earnings call it won't tolerate any pilfering of its iPhone intellectual property. It was less direct, however, on who that is directed at.

But Palm, with its recently introduced Palm Pre, apparently is willing to play the game of corporate posturing, as well.

A Palm representative, according to an interview with AllThingsD, noted the company is comfortable with its innovation and has no problem defending its developments.

Said the Palm rep:

If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.

Anyone want to keep watch … Read more

January 24 marks the the 25th anniversary of the release of the original Macintosh, a computer that--with its whimsical design, innovative graphical user interface and all-in-one form factor--permanently changed personal computing.

Any student of the history of PCs should know that the Mac project was first championed by the late Jef Raskin and then brought to fruition by Steve Jobs. But the team that built the first Mac was, of course, much larger than those two. In fact, the team had a wide range of personalities and skill sets and seems universally to have been regarded as a singular experience … Read more