Fred Anderson
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"But Amelio deserves credit for three major actions—in hardware, finances, and software. The sale of the Fountain factory was the first. It gave Apple critically needed cash and would later spur a whole new strategy in how to build computers. Then Amelio and finance chief Fred Anderson orchestrated two deals to stave off bankruptcy: a week before Apple owed Japanese lenders $150 million, in April 1996, they got a six-month extension. Then in June, they raised $661 million in an oversubscribed bond sale. But Amelio will always be remembered for the third action. He realized that a multiyear effort to improve the Mac’s operating system was hopeless, and that Apple needed to acquire a new OS altogether. That insight set into motion the action that would get him sacked, even as it saved the company. He brought back Steve Jobs."
"Apple’s corporate death was such a real possibility that it sought bankruptcy counsel. It hired a leading lawyer, Harvey Miller, of the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. The company wasn’t quite at the point of telling Miller to draw up the necessary papers, but it explored options to understand what a Chapter 11 filing could offer. Fred Anderson, who joined Apple as chief financial officer in March 1996, would later say: “This company was in a death spiral.”"