Sculley steps down at Apple: Chief turns his attention to emerging new businesses

JOHN SCULLEY, the marketing man brought in from Pepsi to turn around Apple Computer 10 years ago, resigned yesterday as the company's chief executive, handing the job to the president, Michael Spindler.

Mr Sculley, 54, will remain chairman of the Silicon Valley computer maker, turning his energies to emerging new businesses for Apple.

An architect by training with no formal background in engineering, Mr Sculley surprised the industry in 1990 by naming himself Apple's chief technologist, and he said yesterday that his personal interest is 'in defining the opportunities and technologies for Apple in the convergence of computing, communications and content.

'Now I will be able to concentrate fully on these activities while Michael runs the company,' he said.

Mr Sculley, who hails from New York, will retain offices at Apple's California headquarters and on the East Coast, where friends say he has long wanted to return. Computer industry analysts, who generally welcomed the move, said the arrangement was one way for Apple to hang on to Mr Sculley, who had hinted recently that he wanted to distance himself from Apple's day-to-day management.

Earlier this year, Mr Sculley and his wife, also an East Coast native, bought a new home in Greenwich, Connecticut, prompting speculation that he was about to be named the new chief executive of IBM.

Mr Sculley recently confirmed that during IBM's executive search earlier this spring, he had proposed to its board that Apple merge with 'the best parts' of the troubled computer giant.

Mr Sculley's resignation also prompted speculation that he might be considering a public service career. He was a vocal supporter of President Bill Clinton in last year's election campaign, but has since insisted that he could better serve the administration from outside as a member of the business community.

Mr Spindler, a German who was with Apple in Europe before being named president in 1990, is highly regarded on Wall Street.

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