Apple, Citibank Postpone Joint Credit Card

A last-minute glitch in contract negotiations led Citibank and Apple Computer Inc. to suddenly cancel a planned rollout of a new co-branded credit card.

The two companies took the unusual step of canceling a news conference scheduled for Thursday morning. Industry sources said the event was to feature the introduction of a new Citibank credit card that would give discounts on Apple computer equipment based on a card member’s spending.

“We ran into some contractual snags in the end,” said a person familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Other sources familiar with the talks declined to describe the nature of the dispute. By midafternoon Thursday, the card project was still alive, they said.

Citibank declined to comment, but said the news conference has not been rescheduled. Asked about the prospects for an Apple-Citibank card, Eric Wee, an Apple spokesman, said from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport that he could not comment beyond noting Citibank’s indefinite postponement of the news conference.

The bank and the computer maker had planned a full-blown media event to launch the card, which was to be unveiled by the head of Citibank’s credit card business, James Bailey. Apple Computer public relations officials had flown from California to New York to be on hand for the unveiling.