gineers told Atkinson it was impossible to
design such mouse, who in turn told Jobs.
Jobs went to the company and fired the
engineer. A new engineer came in and de-
signed the required mouse.
Jobs Dismissed
Mike Scott and Mike Markkula decided
to upgrade the company’s management
structure as Jobs’ interventions in man-
agement caused them discomfort. In
September 1980, they secretly planned to
restructure Apple so that Koch becomes
the single manager of Lisa production line.
This caused Jobs to lose all his powers
on Lisa computer, which he named after
his daughter. He was also discharged of
his position as head of the R&D depart-
ment, becoming a non-executive head
of department, but remained Apple’s of-
ficial spokesman. Commenting on these
changes, Jobs said he was sad and felt
Markkula abandoned him. He and Scott
felt I am unworthy of leading Lisa produc-
tion line and this decision made me very
sad.
In January 1977, Apple’s market value
was assessed at USD 5,309. Less than
four years later, Apple went public, ranking
top company in receiving purchase orders
of its shares. By 1980, Apple’s market
share reached USD 1,79 billion.
Jobs’ Victims
Daniel Kottke was Job’s friend at college
and his roommate in the house he rented
when he had trouble with his girlfriend.
He worked with him at Apple when it was
headquartered in Jobs’ garage. Before
the IPO, he was not in a position to own
shares granted to Apple’s employees, and
the officially announced reason was that
he was a technician and not engineer,
a required criterion to distribute shares.
Although he could have stocks from the
founders’ shares, Jobs refused to give
him from that share. Andy Hertzfeld, one
of the first engineers at Apple described
that situation saying that Steve cannot be
described as loyal as he was the opposite.
He consistently abandoned those close to
him.
Although Kottke persistently asked Jobs
for a stock share, Jobs evaded him and
treated him coldly. He refused to meet him.
Kottke remembers that saying that he was
not able to speak with Steve and started
crying. Their friendship was in vain. It was
utterly sad!
Some shareholders symphonized with
Kottke, including Rod Holt, the engineer
who made the power supply. He sug-
gested to Steve that each give up some
of their stocks to Kottke but Steve replied
sarcastically saying he would give him
zero stock. Finally, Kottke got some stocks
that were donated by Wozniak.
Wozniak distributes his stocks
Before the IPO, Wozniak decided to sell
2,000 stocks out of his share to forty
mid-income employees at very low price.
These stocks were enough to buy a house
to both Wozniak and Jobs. Wozniak also
gave much of the remaining stocks to
some employees he felt were underpaid.
These actions by Wozniak made Steve
Jobs describe him as “very naïve and
childish”.
to
1,79
billion
after four
years
Next Episode:
• Steve Jobs a Millionaire at the
Age of 25
25
July
2014
