Apple Computers

Apple Computer's UK unit provides desktop (iMac, Power Mac) and notebook (iBook, PowerBook) personal computers, servers (Xserve), and peripheral displays (Cinema). Other products include multimedia and operating system software, wireless networking equipment (Airport), digital music players (iPod), and third-party hardware and software. Apple also operates a music downloading services called iTunes, and it offers online services such as Web hosting and email as part of its .Mac package. The company markets to the consumer, government, education, and corporate sectors.

Apple continues to expand its retail operations in select regions, including the UK. The company launched its first European store in London in 2004, and the following year it opened a store in Birmingham.

Nextel

Nextel Partners, the only US affiliate of Nextel Communications (now Sprint Nextel), holds exclusive rights to provide Nextel's digital wireless communications services in midsized and rural markets. Nextel Partners has more than 1.6 million handsets in service and it operates more than 70 company-owned retail stores throughout the US. Nextel Communications, which was the firm's largest shareholder, contributed the licenses as well as start-up cash in exchange for a nearly one-third stake. Wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, and Motorola each owns about 5% of the company.

Nextel Communications has been acquired Sprint Corporation. Nextel Partners had exercised its right to force Sprint Nextel to buy out the affiliate in a move that sparked a months-long battle over how to value the affiliate. That battle ended in late 2005 when Sprint Nextel agreed to acquire Nextel Partners in a stock deal valued at more than $9 billion.