Boardroom coup

A boardroom coup is a sudden and often unexpected takeover or transfer of power of an organisation or company. The coup is usually performed by an individual or a small group usually from within the corporation in order to seize power. A Boardroom coup draws upon the ideas of a coup d'état in the same way that a corrupt, dysfunctional or unpopular group is pushed out of power.

In 1940 the television company Paramount, in an attempt to strengthen their business, took control of fellow rivals DuMont after failed attempts to work with other established companies in their field, including CBS, RCA and AT&T. Preceding these failures Paramount decided to obtain stocks in another television company, DuMont. After their purchase Allen DuMont, the owner of DuMont television, began to see his powers within the company flagging as Paramount now owned a large proportion of his company. Paramount with its newfound power proceeded to appoint its own directors amongst DuMont’s. The company established their coup by giving crucial financial positions to those they had hired, stopping DuMont from having any financial input into the company and effectively becoming their owners.

In 1985 Steve Jobs was stripped of his title as Apple’s chief visionary after a boardroom meeting in which Apple’s representatives sided with then CEO Sculley. Despite the success of a new advertising campaign release in 1984 there was significant backlog of unsold stock, which was worth millions in revenue. Demand for the products dropped significantly between the years 1984 and 1985, leading to rising tensions between the CEO and Jobs. In an attempt to raise confidence in the company and his own ability, he launched a brand new computer named the Turbo Mac. His new piece of technology featured a multitude of different features from previous Mac models including a faster operating system, customised internal parts exclusively for the Turbo and the ability to store data from within. The project however was unsuccessful due to problems in the physical technology of the system. After this failure and no sign of improvement in profits at the corporation, a boardroom meeting was set up to decide Apple's and, unknowingly to him, Jobs’ future as well. No concrete solutions were made and a few months later, in 1985, Jobs and Sculley had a showdown. Sculley ousted his power, diminished his former title and forced Jobs to leave the company.

After Jobs' removal, Apple had been faltering in its market position once again and was being overtaken by the other technological powerhouses. Scully, in an attempt to save the company, started to begin the process of finding a buyer. A multitude of companies were offered the corporation, but none accepted. In 1996 Gil Amelio took over the helm at Apple and with the bad publicity the corporation was receiving Amelio struggled in reinstating any hope for the future. He was fighting a losing battle for Apple and was considered by many to be worsening its struggle for survival. In June 1997 a meeting was set up with senior board members of Apple. The executives intended to discuss, exactly as it was nearly 10 years earlier, the state of the company and of Amelio. However, this time a clear decision was reached and a couple of weeks later Woolard, a member of the Board of Directors, delivered the news to Amelio by telephone that he would no longer be the head of Apple. Jobs, who had been busy after his resignation with his new company NeXT Inc., was reinstated as interim CEO after Apple bought his business in 1996 and was formally restored to the board in July 1997, just days after Amelio was ousted.

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