If you thought last week’s battle between IDG and Apple over Macworld Expo was getting ugly, take a look at Saturday’s Boston Globe interview with IDG chief Greco.
Apparently IDG has some ways of compelling Apple to change its mind. “You know how badly they want to do San Francisco,” Greco tells the Boston Globe. “We don’t have to let them. We might not let you cherry-pick which Macworld events you do … that’s currently under discussion here.”
Greco claims that Apple is buckling under the pressure of having to do two shows a year. He even describes a meeting with a strained Jobs putting his hands to his head wondering if two Expos — with an eager public expecting blockbuster hardware introductions and millions of dollars in expenses in the staging of the keynote alone — was more than Apple could do. Greco says he thinks the “awful, awful thing” Cupertino did by releasing its Expo statement the same day as IDG’s press conference was straight from Steve himself.
But, wait — there’s more! The Boston Globe also gets a former IDG sales director to step forward and say the real problem is Greco himself, telling the Globe “they [Apple] just don’t like Charlie.” Key3Media Group, operator of Comdex, says it’s the economy, stupid, citing a collapse in attendance at Comdex.
I prefer to speculate on what other threats IDG might use to compel Jobs. Eliminating all premium bottled water from the keynote and replacing it with 20oz. Tab? Changing the name to “Mac OS 9 Expo”? Denying press passes to all commercial media while giving so-called “rumor sites” VIP status? Giving the keynote to John Sculley? A giant barbequed ribs feast on the expo floor — no vegetarians allowed? Free screenings of Shrek? (I’ll let you continue this important line of speculation.)
