Sculley’s Next Stop Is a Surprise : Executives: The former Apple chairman will take the helm at Spectrum, a small and controversial wireless firm.
John Sculley, who resigned Friday as chairman of Apple Computer Inc., raised more than a few eyebrows Monday with the announcement that he will head Spectrum Information Technologies Inc., a small and controversial wireless communications company.
Sculley is believed to have been a candidate for the top job at Eastman Kodak Co., and many observers had assumed he would land at a major company.
Instead, he will become chairman and chief executive of a 9-year-old firm that holds some potentially important patents for computer communications over cellular telephone networks--but that currently stands accused of overstating their value.
Landing a marquee name has already helped Spectrum’s credibility: The company’s shares soared $3.50 to $11.125 on Monday in very heavy Nasdaq trading.
In a telephone interview, Sculley likened his match with Spectrum to another surprising executive move: Barry Diller’s arrival, after a long search, at QVC Network Inc.
Just as Diller saw QVC’s potential as a base for building an interactive television and entertainment empire, Sculley sees Spectrum as a vehicle by which he can play a major role in the burgeoning wireless communications industry.
“I was looking to get involved with a company that was small, where I could get a substantial equity position,” he said. “This is one that I just stumbled into.”
He would not say how big a piece of the company he will own.
Sculley has long espoused the potential of portable communications and computer devices, leading Apple’s drive to build the much-criticized Newton, a hand-held, pen-operated personal organizer.
Though cheered by some as a visionary, Sculley has been blamed by others for Apple’s current travails. He gave up the chief executive spot at Apple last spring--after being forced to do so by the board, according to a lawsuit by a former director--and ended his 10-year run at the company Friday.
Sculley said he became seriously interested in Spectrum during a September meeting at his home in Greenwich, Conn., when Spectrum President Peter Caserta showed him how the technology could be used to send a fax from the Newton to a fax machine down the hall.
“I saw here an opportunity that might be similar to an Intel or a Microsoft,” Sculley said, in reference to the two companies that have reaped fortunes by establishing control over a pivotal technology in a booming market.
Spectrum holds some basic patents for cellular modems, which allow data to be sent over mobile phone networks. The company doesn’t manufacture the devices, but rather licenses the technology. A number of major companies, including AT&T; and modem chip leader Rockwell International, have taken licenses.
But it’s unclear how strong Spectrum’s patents will prove over the long run.
“Their technology works, and it works today,” said Richard Shaffer, principal of Technologic Partners, a consultancy in New York. “How exclusive is their lock on the technology? I don’t know.”
A number of different systems for wireless data communications are currently under development. It is unclear which techniques will emerge as winners, and it’s equally unclear how Spectrum’s patents will apply to the different proposed systems.
Earlier this year, Spectrum’s shares soared as high as $13 after AT&T; agreed to license its technology, only to plunge as low as $4 after an AT&T; official downplayed the value of the license. The company, based in Manhasset, N.Y., is facing shareholder lawsuits over its original claims that the AT&T; license would be worth “hundreds of millions” in royalties.
Spectrum at a Glance
Spectrum Information Technologies Inc. holds potentially important patents on technology for transmitting data over cellular telephone networks, provides engineering services for wireless data communications networks and owns a computer retailing franchise.
* Founded: 1984
* Headquarters: Manhasset, N.Y.
* Employees: 200
* 1993 revenue: $100.1 million
* 1993 loss: $9.9 million
