Apple Narrows Wholesalers in U.S. to Two

Apple Computer Inc. said it’s trimming down to two wholesalers in the U.S. as the company continues to refine a reorganization of its computer distribution process announced in late September. Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. and Microage Inc. of Tempe, Ariz., will be the remaining distributors of Macintosh computers by Dec. 1 in the U.S. TechData Corp., InaCom Corp. and Merisel Inc. will no longer be wholesalers for Apple in the U.S., but they will still do wholesaling for the computer overseas, and continue to sell Macs under slightly different agreements. The move comes as Cupertino-based Apple faces declining sales. In late September it said was cutting to $2 million from $20 million the amount dealers must spend on Apple annually to buy computers directly from the company. The moves will probably help lower Apple’s costs, analysts said, and make the company a bit more efficient. Apple shares rose 69 cents to close at $17.38 on Nasdaq.