Apple accused of 'bait-and-switch' by bankrupt supplier

Apple Inc pulled a "bait and switch" move to force GT Advanced Technologies into a money-losing deal to supply the iPhone maker with sapphire, according to an affidavit by a senior executive at the company. 

In documents unsealed on Friday by a US Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, GT Advanced chief operating officer Daniel Squiller says Apple offered what would have been GT Advanced's largest sale ever and then changed the terms of the agreement after it was too late for the smaller company to pursue other opportunities. 

GT Advanced, a maker of sapphire furnaces that supplied sapphire material to Apple for its smartphone screens, filed for Chapter 11 protection on October 6 and refused to publicly explain why it had imploded, citing confidentiality clauses in its Apple contracts. 

The two companies later reached a deal to part ways and allow GT Advanced to proceed with its bankruptcy, but Judge Henry Boroff denied requests by the companies to keep some of the documents in the case under seal. 

In a deal struck last year, GT Advanced outfitted a plant owned by Apple in Mesa, Arizona with furnaces that it would use to make scratch-resistant sapphire exclusively for Apple. 

"With a classic bait-and-switch strategy, Apple presented GTAT with an onerous and massively one-sided deal in the fall of 2013," Squiller wrote.

In another document unsealed on Friday, Apple called GT Advanced's accusations "scandalous and defamatory". 

At the start of negotiations, Apple offered to buy 2,600 sapphire growing furnaces from GT Advanced, which GT Advanced would operate on behalf of Apple, the "ultimate technology client to land," according to Squiller.

"In hindsight, it is unclear whether Apple even intended to purchase any sapphire furnaces from GTAT," he wrote. 

But after months of hard negotiating, Apple offered a deal under which it would shift away economic risk by lending GT Advanced the money to build the furnaces and grow the sapphire, and then sell it exclusively to Apple for less than market value, Squiller wrote. 

GT Advanced was effectively forced to accept the unfair deal in October 2013 because its intense negotiations with Apple had left it unable to pursue deals with other smartphone makers, he said. 

"These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully," Apple said in its separate filing. 

It said GT Advanced was eager to make a deal, and pointed to a jump of over 20% in the shares of GT Advanced after it was unveiled. 

In November of last year, GT Advanced chief executive officer Tom Gutierrez told analysts on a quarterly conference call that the company was "very pleased" to have made the agreement to supply sapphire to Apple.

19 crazy facts about Bill Gates's $123 million Washington mansion

It took Bill Gates seven years and $63 million to build his Medina, Washington estate, named Xanadu 2.0.

With a net worth of $81.5 billion, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the richest man in America.

It shouldn't be too surprising that one of the wealthiest people in the world also has an insanely extravagant home.

It took Gates seven years and $63 million to build his Medina, Washington estate, named Xanadu 2.0 after the fictional home of "Citizen Kane"'s Charles Foster Kane.

At 66,000 square feet, the home is absolutely massive, and it's filled with high-tech details.

Here are some of Xanadu 2.0's most over-the-top features.

1. It's worth at least $123 million. According to the King County public assessor's office, the property is worth $123.54 million as of this year. Gates purchased the lot for $2 million in 1988.

He reportedly pays around $1 million in property tax each year.

2. Half a million board-feet of lumber was needed to complete the project. The house was built with 500-year-old Douglas fir trees. 300 construction workers labored on the home — 100 of whom were electricians.

3. A high-tech sensor system helps guests monitor a room's climate and lighting. When guests arrive, they're given a pin that interacts with sensors located all over the house. Guests enter their temperature and lighting preferences so that the settings change as they move throughout the home. Speakers hidden behind wallpaper allows music to follow you from room to room.

4. The house uses its natural surroundings to reduce heat loss. Xanadu 2.0 is an "earth-sheltered" house, meaning that it's built into its surroundings to regulate temperature more efficiently.

5. You can change the artwork on the walls with just the touch of a button. $80,000 worth of computer screens are situated around the house. Anyone can make the screens display their favorite paintings or photographs, which are stored on storage devices worth $150,000.

6. The pool also has its own underwater music system. The 60-foot pool is located in its own separate, 3,900-square-foot building. People in the pool could swim underneath a glass wall to come up to a terrace area on the outside.

There's also a locker room with four showers and two baths.

7. There's a trampoline room with a 20-foot ceiling. No word on how big the trampoline itself is, but we can imagine it would be a fun alternative to your standard exercise routine.

The exercise facilities total 2,500 square feet and also include a sauna, steam room, and separate men's and women's locker rooms.

8. An enormous reception hall could accommodate up to 200 guests. The 2,300-square-foot hall could seat up to 150 people for a dinner party, or 200 people standing up at a cocktail event. A six-foot-wide limestone fireplace dominates one wall, while another wall has a 22-foot-wide video screen.

9. The house has 24 bathrooms, 10 of which are full baths. Those bathrooms would definitely be useful if Gates were throwing such a big party. Otherwise, it seems a little over-the-top.

10. There's a total of six kitchens. They're situated at different parts of the house so staff can be ready for any event.

11. An enormous library houses a manuscript Gates paid more than $30 million for. The 2,100-square-foot library has a domed roof and two secret bookcases, including one that reveals a hidden bar. On the ceiling you'll find a quote from "The Great Gatsby" that reads: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it."

The library is home to the Codex Leicester, a 16-century Leonardo da Vinci manuscript that Gates bought at auction for $30.8 million in 1994.

12. The home theatre can accommodate 20 guests in plush seats. It's designed in an Art Deco style, with comfortable arm chairs, couches, and even a popcorn machine for snacking.

13. An existing home was removed by barge to make room for a separate activities building. The 900-square-foot building sits next to Gates' sport court, putting green, and boat docks.

14. The guest house is just as high-tech as the main house. According to US News, the 1,900-square-foot guest house was the first building to be completed on the property. The house — which has its own bedroom and bathroom — was meant to be a test of the technology that would eventually be used in the main house.

Gates wrote much of "The Road Ahead" here.

15. All together, Gates' garages can accommodate up to 23 cars. There are several different garages located at different points around the property. The most interesting one, however, is an underground cave made out of concrete and stainless steel. This garage alone can park 10 cars. Some of the concrete was purposely broken to give it a rough, "deconstructivist" look.

16. Gates has a favorite tree, and it's monitored electronically 24 hours a day. He reportedly became fond of a 40-year-old maple tree that grew close to the home's driveway. It's monitored by computer, and if at any point it becomes too dry, water is automatically pumped into it.

17. An artificial stream is kept stocked with fish. The stream and wetland estuary were created to solve any problems with runoff that the property's large walls might have created. The water is kept stocked with salmon and sea-run cutthroat trout.

18. The sand on Gates' beach is imported from the Caribbean. The lakefront shore contains sand that's delivered in large quantities by a barge from St. Lucia each year.

19. Someone once paid $35,000 just to tour it. Microsoft holds an auction each year, where employees donate products and services to be bid on. Proceeds go to the company's charitable fund.

Gates has donated private tours of Xanadu 2.0 in the past. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, a Microsoft employee once won the tour with a bid of $35,000.

13 most popular tech CEOs in US

It's tough being a CEO. You have to constantly meet your sales goals, introduce new ideas, motivate your employees and keep expanding the business — too. Things only get harder if you're in tech, where everything changes so quickly. 

That's why, for many CEOs, staying popular among employees is often pushed to the back burner. Yet, some manage to keep both their employees and shareholders happy.

Bloomberg has put together a list of the most popular CEOs heading public companies in the US, based on a survey done by Glassdoor. We have narrowed it down to the 13 tech CEOs who received the highest approval rating.

1. LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner

Approval rating: 99.5%

CEO since: 2008

Market cap: $24.9 billion

Revenue (2013): $1.53 billion

About Jeff Weiner: With over 19 years of experience, Weiner is one of the most powerful leaders in tech. Under his leadership, LinkedIn has grown into a truly global platform, spanning 23 languages and 30 worldwide offices. It also has over 330 million users and nearly 6,000 employees.

2. Qualcomm’s Paul Jacobs

Approval rating: 94.8%

CEO since: 2005 (until 2014)

Market cap: $129.6 billion

Revenue (2013): $24.9 billion

About Paul Jacobs: Jacobs stepped down as CEO in March 2014, but he’s been a big part of Qualcomm for the nearly 10 years he has served as CEO. Since joining the company in 1990 as an engineer, Jacobs became VP and general manager within five years, and was named CEO in 2005. He was also appointed chairman in 2009.

3. Intuit’s Brad Smith

Approval rating: 94.4%

CEO since: 2008

Market cap: $24.79 billion

Revenue (2013): $4.5 billion

About Brad Smith: Before he was named CEO, Smith spent five years as Intuit’s senior VP and general manager, overseeing the company’s small business division, which includes the QuickBooks and Payroll products. He was also a part of the team that managed TurboTax products.

4. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg

Approval rating: 93.3%

CEO since: 2004

Market cap: $191.7 billion

Revenue (2013): $7.8 billion

About Mark Zuckerberg: Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his college dorm room at Harvard in 2004. Since then, Facebook has become the largest social media site in the world, with more than 1.35 billion monthly active users. Zuckerberg’s net worth is over $32.7 billion, according to Forbes.

5. Google’s Larry Page

Approval rating: 93.2%

CEO since: 2001

Market cap: $373.3 billion

Revenue (2013): $57.86 billion

About Larry Page: Page co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1999. He was the company’s first CEO until 2001. From 2001 to 2011, Larry was president of products. Recently, Google announced that Page would be taking a step back to focus on the “bigger picture,” while Sundar Pichai takes on a more powerful role.

6. Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff

Approval rating: 93.0%

CEO since: 1999

Market cap: $38.2 billion

Revenue (2013): $4.1 billion

About Marc Benioff: Benioff is the chairman and CEO of the cloud computing company, Salesforce.com. He founded the company in 1999, and under his leadership, has grown into one of the largest cloud computing companies in tech. Benioff has more than 35 years of experience in tech, including positions at Oracle and Apple.

7. Riverbed’s Jerry Kennelly

Approval rating: 92.8%

CEO since: 2002

Market cap: $3.01 billion

Revenue (2013): $1.04 billion

About Jerry Kennelly: Kennelly is one of the co-founders of Riverbed Technologies, a network application company founded in 2002. He’s also the chairman of the company. Prior to Riverbed, Kennelly was executive VP and CFO at software company Inktomi. He has also worked with Sybase, Oracle and HP.

8. Apple’s Tim Cook

Approval rating: 92%

CEO since: 2011

Market cap: $627.4 billion

Revenue (2013): $170.9 billion

About Tim Cook: Cook replaced Apple founder Steve Jobs as CEO in August 2011. Prior to that, he was the COO, where he oversaw Apple’s worldwide sales and operations. Before Apple, Cook has worked with Compaq, Intelligent Electronics and IBM.

9. eBay’s John Donahoe

Approval rating: 91.2%

CEO since: 2008

Market cap: $64.04 billion

Revenue (2013): $16.05 billion

About John Donahoe: Donahoe first joined eBay in 2005 as president of eBay Marketplaces. He’s also on the eBay board of directors. Prior to joining eBay, Donahoe was CEO of Bain & Company, where he spent more than 20 years of his career.

10. ADP’s Carlos Rodriguez

Approval rating: 90.6%

CEO since: 2011

Market cap: $37.9 billion

Revenue (2013): $12.2 billion

About Carlos Rodriguez: Rodriguez first joined ADP, the payroll service provider, in 1999. He quickly rose through the rankings, filling in positions of president and COO along the way.

11. Cognizant Technology Solution’s Frank D’Souza

Approval rating: 89.9%

CEO since: 1994

Market cap: $29.17 billion

Revenue (2013): $8.8 billion

About Frank D’Souza: D’Souza is one of the co-founders of Cognizant, an IT consulting service company. Under D’Souza’s leadership, Cognizant has become an S&P 500 and Fortune 500 company, with more than 180,000 employees globally. He’s also on the board of General Electric Co.

12. EMC’s Joe Tucci

Approval rating: 89%

CEO since: 2001

Market cap: $57.92 billion

Revenue (2013): $23.2 billion

About Joe Tucci: Tucci was named EMC’s CEO in 2001, a year after joining the company as COO. He transformed EMC’s business from being mostly focused on a high-end storage platform to visualization, cloud, and security software. Before joining EMC, Tucci worked at network solutions company Wang Global and RCA Corp.

13. NetApp’s Tom Georgens

Approval rating: 85.5%

CEO since: 2009

Market cap: $13.4 billion

Revenue (2014): $6.3 billion

About Tom Georgens: Georgens has more than 20 years of experience in the storage area. He has spent 11 years at EMC, before working at Engenio and LSI Logic Storage Systems for nine years. Georgens is also the chairman of NetApp’s board.