back to article Apple buys out $1bn data center squatters

Who says the US housing market is dead? One Northern Carolina couple just received $1.7m for their one-story home on less than a acre of land that they bought for $6,000. The buyer? Steve Jobs & Co. It seems that Donnie and Kathy Fulbright's home was on land that Apple needed for its $1bn data center, according to a report …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. David Simpson 1
    Jobs Horns

    Look up how many

    One data center does not a Google make.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    We all saw it coming!

    Windows XP was the peak, Longhorn took too long, Vista was a disgrace, no way in hell am I going shell out cash for Win7. Microsoft are doomed, they where doomed as soon as Monkey boy took over. Replace the head of an engineering company with a bean counter, and its always the same story, steady decline.

    Now how do I convince Steve to build a data centre in my neck of the woods?

    1. Russ Tarbox

      But nothing comes close in the enterprise environment.

      And Windows 7 is well worth shelling out cash for. Microsoft is still a very successful company, they just try entering a lot of new markets and often fail (e.g. Zune). But sometimes they succeed (e.g. XBox 360). But I think predicting their demise is a little premature. I for one could not recommend any other OS to my enterprise clients.

      1. Tom Chiverton 1

        Ummm

        Ummm, doesn't the XBox division make a loss still ?

        1. CD001

          IIRC

          I think it started turning a profit a few months back now ... it's nowhere near paid for itself yet but it's not haemorrhaging cash any more.

    2. Adam Nealis

      Steve Jobs or Steve Ballmer?

      >> Now how do I convince Steve to build a data centre in my neck of the woods?

      Steve Jobs or Steve Ballmer?

  3. banjomike
    Go

    "They told us to put a price on it and we did,"

    My goodness, Apple do something nice for a change. What is the world coming to.

    1. Dan 10

      Their lucky day

      I wonder if the couple will buy an ipad just for a laugh, be kinda nice to lounge in your new rich surroundings like that, all provided by Jobs...

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      Stop

      Define "nice".

      I suspect that it's more like "what's good for them" and any perceived "niceness" in there is purely illusory.

      I'd be willing to bet that someone took a guess at how long legal proceedings might run for, multiplied that by the amount it's costing 'em every day this thing isn't being built, added on a ballpark figure for legal costs and came up with a figure somewhere seriously north of 1.7 million.

      Or, in other words, paying 'em to f*** off quickly is pure, venal self-interest on Apple's part and the world moves along unchanged.

  4. Hud Dunlap
    Jobs Halo

    what? No emminent domain

    Using eminent domain to snatch property is a big thing in the U.S.. I am glad Jobs's didn't stoop that low.

    The Supremes have ruled that if the new use of the property will raise the tax values that property is fair game for emininent domain.

    1. JEDIDIAH
      Linux

      D*mn Y*nk**s!

      You never know. He might have tried using eminent domain. US States are far from homogeneous. What works on one side of the Mason Dixon line might not work on the other.

      1. yeehaw....
        Stop

        California_is_different.......

        Lived there in the early seventies and it was nice back then. Now though the hippies, gays, greens,and goobers run the state - can you imagine the lynch mob that would show up at His iHoliness's's's's's's house if he tried that?

        It would seriously freak all of those groups out. Apple would get a shock they know it, thus the $1.7.

        hmmmm... no peace sign.......

        1. foxyshadis

          If you don't live here now, you really have no idea...

          The reality doesn't really match the news reports; San Jose, San Diego, and the Central Valley are still some of the most conservative in the nation. SF and Berkeley are still the only real liberal's playgrounds; the rest of the state is more dead set on keeping taxes low and getting through another year than any ideology, like most of the country.

  5. Donald Atkinson

    Eminent domain

    The Supreme Court decided to leave the eminent domain issue open ended and turfed it to the states to draft the limits. The Supremes said that you could use eminent domain in order to raise the tax value IF the state legislature allows it. The ruling does not prevent a state legislature from writing far more restrictive rules. It is a state by state affair and a pr minefield no matter where you are.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    maybe other people work at apple too.

    I think apple is a cult as much as the next irrational computer geek but the way this article is written you would think that apple is just steve jobs.

    He does hold the big stick that everyone seems to be beaten with there, but maybe one of the other monkeys has a plan that needs a data centre.... just a thought.

    This media build up around steve jobs over the last few years at least means that when he leaves apple most people will think that they have turned the lights out and stopped trading.

    (lowercase delibierate)

    1. Adam Nealis

      delibilliterate?

      >> (lowercase delibierate)

      (lowercase delibilliterate)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    Microsoft

    "A mere decade or so ago, who would have thought that by 2010 it would be Microsoft reeling and Apple rocking?

    We didn't. And admit it, neither did you."

    You're right, a decade ago I wasn't thinking about Apple.

    I strongly suspected that it would take the morons more than a decade to give up using Microshite software and hey - they still haven't!

    <-- Gates, even though he isn't in charge any more and has turned into quite a charitable fellow.

    1. yeehaw....
      Gates Horns

      Lies.......

      <-- Gates, even though he isn't in charge any more and has turned into quite a charitable fellow.

      <<<<---- Gates is trying to buy his soul back........ won't work.

  8. Philip Cohen
    FAIL

    Apple?eBay

    I hope Mr Sanche does a better job with Apple's data center than he did with eBay's new data center.

  9. dave 93
    Grenade

    Er, actually....

    el reg says...

    A mere decade or so ago, who would have thought that by 2010 it would be Microsoft reeling and Apple rocking?

    ...

    Maybe the millions of people who bought Apple computers in 2000?

    Spice Girls are more popular than the Clash, doesn't mean they're better

  10. anentropic

    Ping Pongs

    "Is he cooking up a Facebook challenger, with his new and improved "social networking for music" effort, Ping, as his testbed?"

    Dear god I hope not, Ping is a massive FAIL so far.

  11. Anomalous Cowturd
    Stop

    I use Ping every day!

    You know, the network tool.

    Do you mean iPing?

    1. h 6
      Coat

      Is that?

      Are you talking about the machine that goes "Ping!"?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    How about UK property?

    Happy to sell my gaff for a large courtesy of Mr. Jobs.

    The price, a mere 24 million, Sterling mind, I don't want any of your greenback funny money.

    1. yeehaw....
      Black Helicopters

      Buy gold instead

      Fox News might have a point......

      --- lying here in a hospital bed with the tv changer stuck on Fox.....

      intolerable cruelty........

      sigh... I have 2 minutes to the next morphine hit..... got one of those PAP (idk...patient activated pump?) hooked up to the iv........ aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Heaven can wait...

    Former owner: He got my team. The son of a bitch got my team.

    Advisor to former owner: What kind of pressure did he use, Milt?

    Former owner: All I asked was sixty-seven million, and he said "okay."

    Advisor to former owner: Ruthless bastard.

  14. MinionZero
    Joke

    More land?...

    Presumably that acre of land will come in handy for some extra land fill space should they feel the need ;)

    ... I couldn't help it, the voices in my head made me say it. :)

  15. vincent himpe

    They need this huge datacenter

    to store more fart applications in the cloud so they can stream them to you.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like