Exit, Pursued by a Bear

阿梅里奧出局

Jobs had refused to quash Larry Ellison’s takeover talk, and he had secretly sold his shares and been misleading about it. So Amelio finally became convinced that Jobs was gunning for him. “I finally absorbed the fact that I had been too willing and too eager to believe he was on my team,” Amelio recalled. “Steve’s plans to manipulate my termination were charging forward.”

喬布斯拒絕澄清拉里·埃利森的收購說法，又秘密地賣掉了他的股票而且還不認賬。阿梅里奧終于開始相信喬布斯是沖著他來的了?！拔易罱K接受了這個事實，我太愿意太渴望相信他是跟我站在一起的，”阿梅里奧后來回憶說，“史蒂夫操縱我出局的計劃在一步步向前推進?！?/span>

Jobs was indeed bad-mouthing Amelio at every opportunity. He couldn’t help himself. But there was a more important factor in turning the board against Amelio. Fred Anderson, the chief financial officer, saw it as his fiduciary duty to keep Ed Woolard and the board informed of Apple’s dire situation. “Fred was the guy telling me that cash was draining, people were leaving, and more key players were thinking of it,” said Woolard. “He made it clear the ship was going to hit the sand soon, and even he was thinking of leaving.” That added to the worries Woolard already had from watching Amelio bumble the shareholders meeting.

喬布斯確實是一有機會就說阿梅里奧的壞話。他無法控制自己，而且他的批評還是實話。但是還有一個更重要的原因讓整個董事會開始反對阿梅里奧。首席財務(wù)官弗雷德·安德森認為自己有責任將蘋果岌岌可危的狀況告知埃德·伍拉德和董事會?！笆歉ダ椎赂嬖V我現(xiàn)金短缺，員工在流失，還有更多的重要員工在考慮離開。”伍拉德說，“他講得很清楚，這艘船很快就要擱淺，甚至他自己都在考慮離開?！蔽槔驴吹桨⒚防飱W在股東大會上的拙劣表現(xiàn)后，本來就已經(jīng)在擔心，聽了弗雷德的話之后就更加憂心忡忡。

At an executive session of the board in June, with Amelio out of the room, Woolard described to current directors how he calculated their odds. “If we stay with Gil as CEO, I think there’s only a 10% chance we will avoid bankruptcy,” he said. “If we fire him and convince Steve to come take over, we have a 60% chance of surviving. If we fire Gil, don’t get Steve back, and have to search for a new CEO, then we have a 40% chance of surviving.” The board gave him authority to ask Jobs to return.

伍拉德請高盛研究出售蘋果公司的可能性，但是這家投資銀行說不太可能找到一家合適的戰(zhàn)略投資者，因為蘋果的市場份額已經(jīng)降得太低了。在6月的一次董事會上，阿梅里奧不在場時，伍拉德對當時的董事講述了他對形勢的判斷?！叭绻覀兝^續(xù)讓吉爾擔任CEO，我想只有10%的機會可以避免破產(chǎn)，”他說，“如果我們解雇他并說服史蒂夫接任，我們有60%的機會生存下去。如果我們解雇吉爾，史蒂夫不來，必須找一個新的CEO,那我們有40%的機會幸存?！倍聲阼舅枂滩妓故欠裨敢饣貋恚瑹o論結(jié)果如何，要在7月4日國慶假期召開董事會緊急電話會議。