Apple to Build New 50-Acre Cupertino Campus

SAN FRANCISCO, April 19 (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. is planning to build a new, 50-acre campus near its present headquarters in Cupertino, California, company Chief Executive Steve Jobs said.

"What's happened at Apple is that our business has basically tripled in the last five or six years," Jobs said on Tuesday evening at a Cupertino city council meeting, which was recorded and viewable as an archived Webcast.

He said the company "has gone from $6 billion in sales to $20 billion in sales, basically." Analysts expect Apple to post $20.3 billion in revenue for its fiscal 2006 ending in September, according to Reuters Estimates.

Jobs said it would likely take three to four years to design and build the campus that could accommodate 3,000 to 3,500 employees.

An Apple spokesman, who was present at the meeting, confirmed the company's plans to build the second campus.

"We're pretty thrilled," Jobs told the city council members. "Since we're your largest taxpayer, I thought you might be happy for us."

Apple has been rejuvenated since it introduced its market-leading iPod digital music player in 2001 and is in the process of moving its entire Macintosh computer line to Intel Corp. chips from those made by International Business Machines Corp.

Jobs said that, in addition to its current Cupertino headquarters, Apple employees are spread among 30 other buildings.

"We've rented every scrap of building we could find in Cupertino," Jobs said, who noted that Apple had recently purchased the nine separate, contiguous parcels.

Apple plans to raze the buildings now on the property and design and build new ones, Jobs said. The new campus will be about a mile away from its current headquarters.

Apple was famously started in Jobs' parents' garage in Silicon Valley by Jobs and co-founder Steve Wozniak 30 years ago this month.

Jobs said that about a year later, Apple relocated to Cupertino, where it has had its headquarters ever since.

"We'll probably get larger still," Jobs said referring to the company's overall business and work force.

Whoa, that's interesting! I wonder what it'll look like, and what the new address will be o_O

This means no more "1 infinite loop" on their mailing address huh :\ I'm gonna miss that.

But hey, growth is awesome! When was the last time you heard about a company in the US expanding and hiring new employees instead of shutting down offices and laying off employees?

"We've rented every scrap of building we could find in Cupertino," Jobs said, who noted that Apple had recently purchased the nine separate, contiguous parcels.

Wow thats crazy!

Looks like I have time to finish school and improve my résumé if I want t work for Apple.

9 parcels. Perhaps Jobs is still listening to the Beatles.

Number 9 Number 9 Number 9 Number 9

I hope this works for Apple and Cupertino.

awesome! keep on growin apple!

mr

Nice but why not build one giant building to house everybody!?

The most poorly attended Stevenote™ ever... :D

You can see the Webcast here...Steve's presentation is about eight and a half minutes into the webcast.

I agree that this sounds like good news--but for whom exactly? Just shareholders or Apple consumers as well? This amount of growth implies that Apple has big plans for the future; plans that extend beyond "selling more iPods and MacBook Pros." Part of me hopes that Apple doesn't get too big, though, so the forest can still be seen through the trees.

This makes me wonder what Apple has in store for the near future!

now maybe they'll have room to give me a job!

Nice :). Can't wait to see the building's design.

Not so happy about tech support from india.