Steve Jobs Forced Out of Apple | Generated by AI
Question: How was Steve Jobs kicked out of Apple?
Answer:
Steve Jobs was effectively forced out of Apple in 1985 after a power struggle with the company’s board of directors and CEO John Sculley. Here is the timeline and key events in clean chronological order:
- 1976–1983: Steve Jobs co-founds Apple with Steve Wozniak and grows it rapidly. The Apple II becomes a huge success, and the company goes public in 1980.
- 1983: Jobs personally recruits John Sculley, then president of PepsiCo, to be Apple’s CEO with the famous line, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
- 1984: The Macintosh is launched with massive hype (the famous “1984” Super Bowl ad). However, sales disappoint after the initial surge because the Mac is expensive, underpowered, and has very little memory and no hard drive.
- Early 1985: Internal tensions rise. The Mac division (led by Jobs) and the Apple II division (still the cash cow, led by other executives) clash. Jobs is described by many colleagues as brilliant but abrasive, volatile, and difficult to manage. He publicly belittles other teams and their products.
- April–May 1985: Jobs attempts to stage a coup against Sculley while Sculley is on a business trip to China. When Sculley finds out, he confronts Jobs. The board of directors meets on May 24, 1985, and sides overwhelmingly with Sculley.
- May 31, 1985: Sculley officially strips Jobs of all operational responsibilities. Jobs is removed as head of the Macintosh division and given a ceremonial “chairman” role with no real power (essentially a demotion to a figurehead position).
- June–September 1985: Feeling he has been pushed out, Jobs tries to rally support to retake control but fails. On September 17, 1985, he resigns from Apple resigns from Apple, taking a few key employees with him to found NeXT Computer. He also sells almost all of his Apple stock (retaining only one share) in disgust.
In short, Jobs was not literally “fired” in the sense of being terminated as an employee; the board reorganized the company in a way that removed him from power, and he chose to resign rather than stay in a powerless role. The event is usually referred to as “Steve Jobs being forced out” or “kicked out” of Apple in 1985.
He returned triumphantly as interim CEO (“iCEO”) in 1997 after Apple acquired NeXT and the then-CEO Gil Amelio was ousted.
References:
- Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (2011 biography, chapters 12–15)
- “The Real Story of How Steve Jobs Was Fired From Apple” – Business Insider (2015 summary of board minutes and interviews) https://www.businessinsider.com/how-steve-jobs-was-fired-from-apple-2015-9
- Apple board meeting records and interviews in Fire in the Valley and Infinite Loop by Michael Malone