Former Apple Execs Form Acquicor to Net New Technologies

Led by former Apple Chief Executive Gilbert Amelio, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Apple chief technology officer Ellen Hancock, Acquicor is what its name says: an acquiring corporation.

Matt Marshall of Mercury News (http://www.siliconvalley.com) reported that Acquicor raised $150 million in the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) on Tuesday. The money will be used “to shop for technology businesses,” according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents, and Acquicor has up to two years “to complete a deal or return investors’ funds.”

San Jose Mercury News reports that Acquicor has more than $3 billion at its disposal to buy other companies.

Remy Davison of Insanely Great Mac (http://www.insanely-great.com/news) writes of Acquicor: “You might call it a venture capital company, à la Mark Markkula (founding director of Apple, made Apple public, and stayed a long, long time; briefly interim CEO; disposed of - permanently - by Jobs). But it’s not quite venture capital.”

Acquicor is based in Newport Beach, and it is the most recent of more than 40 special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to go public since August 2003, according to Marshall.

To make the company work, the new triumvirate clearly plans to ride on their reputations of being former Apple employees. Acquicor, a “blank check” company, will pick and choose which properties it seeks to acquire and negotiate with current tech business owners to finalize a price. Marshall writes, “The three executives will shop for technology companies that leverage the adoption of Internet Protocol, according to the company.”
Mark LaPedus of EE Times (http://www.eetimes.com) reports that the company’s intent in the SEC documents states: “Our efforts in identifying prospective target businesses will not be limited to a particular industry, although we intend to focus on the technology, multimedia and networking sectors.”

Acquicor is one of the wealthiest SPACs. “Last year, only Star Maritime Acquisition raised more. Grubb & Ellis Realty Advisors completed a $143.8 million IPO earlier this month, making it the largest in 2006 before Acquicor,” according to Marshall.

Acquicor can be found on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol AQR.U as a trading company. It has no products or sales. Yet, the company will seek shareholder approval for any deal.

Amelio, Wozniak, and Hancock are the company’s only employees. Davison notes, “The only question mark over these three is that they have not been notably successful as business managers. Hancock, for example, has at least one corporate bankruptcy behind her while she was a corporate CEO.”

David Menlow, president of research firm IPOFinancial.com told Bloomberg News, “These are people that have very big feathers in their caps. So it’s going to catch more people’s attention than a regular blank-check company.”

Amelio, 63, is chairman and CEO of the new company. He was ousted from Apple in 1997. Amelio is also a senior partner of Sienna Ventures, a venture capital firm in Sausalito, where he has worked since 2003, according to Mercury News.

“Additionally, [Amelio] is president and CEO of Prexient Micro Devices, a fabless semiconductor company; a director of AT&T; and an adviser to both the Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor and the prime minister of Malaysia.”

Davison writes about Amelio, “His only notable success was purchasing the Trojan Horse called Steve Jobs and inviting his company full of NeXT engineers into Apple’s executive suite. The $400 million purchase of NeXT was a smart strategic move on Amelio’s part, even though it did lead to his - and Hancock’s - ouster.”

Entrepreneur Wozniak, 55, is president and chief technology officer of Wheels of Zeus (WOZ), a global-positioning system and wireless company; he is also one of the pioneering technologists of the PC industry. Davison writes, “Not only did he effectively invent the PC, but he did both the hardware and software engineering for the Apple I and Apple II and IIgs (the Apple III - failure - was Jobs’). He also reinvented the floppy disc drive in his spare time.”
Hancock’s bankruptcy that Davison mentioned happened in 2001. She was CEO of Web hosting company, Exodus Communication, until it filed for bankruptcy. Currently, Hancock is now a director of Colgate-Palmolive, Electronic Data Systems, Aetna and Watchguard Technologies, according to Acquicor’s filing with the SEC.

While employed as Apple’s CTO, Hancock originally pushed for Copland, a dramatic restructuring of the Mac OS. Copland could not be delivered timely or within budget, and so the project ultimately failed.

Despite the “appalling hardware” put out by Amelio and Hancock, the technological genius of Wozniak might just save Acquicor. It is definitely a company to keep on the radar.