Then Oracle s ever effluvial founder, Larry Ellison, said he d take a place on the board. Word that Apple would do an about face and cancel licensing agreements that allowed others to make Macintosh clones. Licensees such as Power Computing went into a tizzy. And some of the world s wisest Apple watchers could only shake their heads. I ve been hearing that it's chaos inside Apple.
Outward indications offer credence.
All this confusion can do nothing but complicate the search. Apple needs a premier chief executive, someone with the mettle of IBM s Lou Gerstner. But an exec of that stature would be foolish to stake a reputation on a company whose situation appears more and more untenable with each new day. This is why MacWorld will be such a thriller. And the climax could come on Wednesday, when Jobs is scheduled to deliver a keynote.