I'm a bit skeptical by the fairly upbeat tone taken in the statement. It's never a good thing to have huge exhibitors pulling out at the last minute. However, given the huge hype around anything Apple these days, the pullouts are more indicative of the poor economy than anything to do with Macworld Expo or Apple -- especially since we are seeing similar pullouts from CES.

It is good news for some smaller companies, though. AppleInsider notes that Elgato and FastMac are taking advantage of the late pullout, moving their booths closer to the central Apple booth or upgrading their space -- probably at a significant discount.

(Full disclosure: The Industry Standard is owned by IDG. IDG World Expo, the company behind Macworld, is a division of IDG. Other than issuing a statement, no one at IDG, besides my editor, had any input on the content of this article.)