By Steve Musil (steve_musil@zd.com)
In a memo addressed to Apple employees, Steve Jobs today
announced new steps at
making Apple "a more egalitarian, entrepreneurial company."
The cost-cutting moves - aimed directly at the employees -
include revamped stock
options and severance plans; elimination of Apple's
sabbatical program; constraints on
corporate travel; and consolidation of employees onto the R&D
Campus, which was
today renamed "the Apple Campus," according to the memo.
Stock options will be the company's primary form of
"beyond-salary" compensation,
the memo said. In addition, it said that the executive team
had agreed to forfeit its
current and future cash bonus plans in exchange for
additional stock options.
"As we restore Apple's fortunes, our public shareholders and
our employee stock
option holders will all benefit in harmony," Jobs wrote.
The new severance plan -- which will apply to all Apple
employees - will provide a
60-day notice period with full pay and benefits, plus a
week's salary for each year of
service, according to the memo.
Asserting it needed "all hands on deck," the memo said that
Apple will discontinue its
sabbatical program at the end of the fiscal year. Employees
eligible for time off by the
end of September will be allowed to take the leave in 1998,
the memo said.
Apple's new travel policy specifies coach-class seats for
flights lasting less than 10
hours and business class for flights longer than 10 hours.
Apple promised to comment on the memo later today.
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