Tech Industry
04/16/2003, 4:30am, EDT
Wednesday, April 16th[::FROM::] [::SiteName::]
Elite files lawsuit, closes retail stores
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Apple reseller Elite Compuyers has filed suit against Apple for $5 million dollars for alleged breach of contract, according to an article in the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal. Meanwhile, several sources indicate that Elite Computers has closed four of its ComputerWare Macintosh retail stores in the San Francisco Bay area. (We previously noted that both Dell and Target also stopped selling Apple products after Apple recently revised the terms of its reseller agreements, while Apple responded saying that the un-renewed reseller contracts made up less than 1.5% of its worldwide revenue in 2002.)
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[SJ Biz Journal] "The lawsuit, filed last month seeks more than $5 million in compensation for what Elite Computers says is breach of contract, unfair competition, false advertising and fraud....The complaint cites Apple's use of its new retail and online stores in engaging in unfair competition. It also alleges that Apple has contacted Elite's customers directly, trying to lure them away."
[MacNN Reader] "To follow up a recent story from the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal, at the close of business April 15th, Elite Computers has closed down all four of its ComputerWare Macintosh retail stores in the San Francisco bay area (San Rafael, Cupertino, Berkeley and Santa Cruz) as well as all corporate/integration sales from Elite's headquarters in Santa Clara. All employees were immediately laid off and existing inventory is due to be liquidated at the Cupertino location over the next few weeks.
"There was speculation concerning a sale of the company or some form of partnership, but those plans collapsed this past weekend. Elite has refused to go along with Apple's latest reseller contract agreement and the company president (Thomas Armes) has decided to pursue legal action through the lawsuit mentioned in the Business Journal. Elite has had trouble in the past few months maintaining inventory, ordering product and making sales targets. After losing a major corporate client last Fall, an initial round of layoffs and pay cuts swept through the company but Elite simply was not able to recover after a lackluster holiday shopping season. This contract/lawsuit tit-for-tat business between Apple and Elite was the final nail in the coffin."
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posted by MacNN.com Reader
posted by MacNN.com Reader
posted by MacNN.com Reader
posted by MacNN.com Reader
Isn't this the outfit that very publicly complained that they were going to have to close their stores due to Apple? After much public debate about the issue, they announced that they had found the money to allow them to attempt to manage their business "one more time"?
Or is my memory faulty this morning?
posted by MacNN.com Reader
When the Apple Stores finally came about, the ownership of ComputerWare decided they wouldn't try to compete and closed up shop. Elite bought the name, but they aren't the same operation.
posted by MacNN.com Reader
posted by MacNN.com Reader
They want to control EVERYTHING in the retail experience...
posted by MacNN.com Reader
posted by MacNN.com Reader
I wonder if what they are questioning here is the emails that Apple sends out if you enter an email address when you register your Apple product. I doubt that any of these customers actually received an email from Jobs saying "Hey, come buy from the Apple Store instead of Elite."
Apple can send advertisements to their customer base if they want to, whether that customer bought the computer from a reseller or Apple themself, they are simply advertising their own product.
This sounds like a scheme by Elite (that is going down the shitter) to scrape up some money for the owner to retire on. Their simply saying "No fair, Apple built a store near us and provided better customer service, so now we don't have any more customers." Uhhh, should that be a surprise to anyone?
posted by MacNN.com Reader