Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy Page #4

---

is with companies.

And he always spoke that he wanted

to be one of those important people.

So he'd got the business side

pretty clearly.

He got the business side but he did

tie it in philosophically with,

"This is how you get

good things to people."

It wasn't, "I only want money."

It was Wozniak's next computer,

which propelled Apple

into the stratosphere.

Released in 1977,

the Apple II was the first home

computer with colour graphics.

Over the next three years,

sales grew rapidly

to more than $150 million,

taking Apple from a suburban garage

to the pinnacle of a new industry...

personal computing.

There are some great partnerships,

aren't there, in the world?

One thinks of Lennon and McCartney

and you and Steve Jobs.

Who was Lennon, who was McCartney?

I am so honoured to be considered

in that kind of category,

and yet it's true, it's true.

You know, Steve and I,

we were like a...

Lennon McCartney partnership,

exactly. I couldn't say who was who.

I always thought people always

attributed me with Lennon

because I had really built

and designed the machines.

And then Steve knew how to take

it to the public.

Um, but he had, you know,

his own type of brilliance too.

When Apple went public in 1980,

it was the most over-subscribed

offering of shares

since that of Ford motors in 1956.

Success on this scale changed Apple.

Any company when it becomes public

and becomes bigger becomes

different. Politics seep in.

The company goal from that point on

wasn't to change the world,

but to increase

the value to shareholders.

It certainly did that.

It was worth nearly $2 billion

by the end of 1980.

And Jobs had a quarter of a billion.

But now money men and women

flooded in to Apple,

and Jobs, just 25, wasn't really

taken seriously by them.

Steve was the chairman, but

he wasn't seen as the person

who had the stature

and the maturity to run the company.

Especially as the world around Apple

was changing fast.

Competition in the personal computer

market was intensifying.

In 1981, IBM launched its response

to the Apple II -

The IBM PC.

'A computer expert will show you

the system that's right for you.'

It was the opening shot of a battle

that would rage for 15 years.

Apple went from the leading

personal computer company

to the second-place company

and actually, was in a very

precarious position in that

because the IBM system could be used

in companies other than IBM

and you could see where Apple would

fall further and further back.

Apple needed a seasoned

Chief Executive to pilot the company

through increasingly tough times.

Steve Jobs' search took him

to New York

and to John Sculley, President

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes