Posts Tagged ‘gil amelio’

1997 – Apple Computer makes the acquisition of NeXT for $427 million. The OpenStep OS will be the base of Mac OS X. Steve Wozniak returns to Apple as an executive committee member. Gil Amelio – with Steve Jobs as his advisor – makes plans to restructure Apple. Finally, Bill Gates publicly states that he is very interested in continuing to work with Apple.

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Other Historical Events in Technology

• Sega releases the last game for the Master System – Bomber Raid
• The 1GHz CMOS is demonstrated for the first time
• EarthLink merges with MindSpring

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1996 – Apple had been declining in the last few years. With Michael Spindler at the helm and a host of problems with the failed Lisa project, the company had been dealing with loss after loss. The $68 Million first quarter loss was a wake up call for Apple to change guard. On Feb 2nd, Gil Amelio would replace Michael Spindler as CEO, who in turn would bring Steve Jobs back into the mix and ultimately loose that position to the former CEO.

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Other Historical Events in Technology

• Sinclair 16/32 bit Quantum Leap
• (fictional) Activation of HAL 9000
• UNIX is introduced

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1997 – Gil Amelio just was removed as CEO. People were calling for Steve Jobs to return, but others thought that would be a bad investment. Michael Dell was asked what he would do, he came back in saying Apple should close the doors and give the money back. Had Apple done that, we might see a completely different market out there. Then again, we might just see the OS X as the NeXT OS on a regular PC.

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Other items in the Day in Tech History:

• Lotus Development goes Public
• Windows 2.0 and Excel 2.0 are released
• AMD splits the company

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:54 — 4.1MB)

It was Ocober 6th 1997 that CEO Gil Amelio was asked to leave. Many people wanted Steve Jobs to come back, however it was a concern that it wouldn’t be the right move at this time. Michael Dell went on record saying that Apple should shut it’s operation down.

Today, even with the stock issue last week, Apple’s market cap is greater than Dell and even Google. Of course we have some great products out of the turnaround and eventual comeback of Jobs. All from a company that could have dissolved back in 1997

Hear about this and a bunch of cool stuff on Part I of This Week in Tech History.

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It’s interesting to see the irony in life. You win, you lose. It’s like rain on your wedding day….

Steve Jobs was seeing a bit of resistance from Apple in 1985. By May, Steve was in an internal struggle for CEO against John Sculley. Ultimately, Apple agreed and Steve stepped down as CEO of the Apple Mac division. 4 months later, Steve decided to leave Apple to start NeXt – a new computer company.

The NeXt OS was released in 1989 and the NeXtstation and NeXtCube in 1990. Jobs built it into a decent powerhouse while Apple continued to struggle. Ultimately in 1997, NeXt was purchased by Apple for $429 million. They got not only the NeXtSTEP Operating System, but they also got Steve Jobs as a consultant.

However, this came to Steve Job’s advantage as in July 1997. CEO Gil Amelio was ousted and Steve Jobs took an interim CEO role. Then, on Sept 16th 1997, Steve Jobs took back his CEO position to which he still resides.

This really shows people not to burn a bridge. If it wasn’t for Jobs’ return, Apple might have taken a downward spiral. We might have even seen a “Microsoft Apple” system. iPod and iPhone would have been a NeXt product – Maybe.