In 1985, Apple's board of directors forced Steve Jobs out of the company he had co-founded. It was one of the most dramatic exits in Silicon Valley history.

He Kept One Share

After a bitter power struggle with CEO John Sculley, Jobs sold almost his entire Apple stake - roughly 11% of the company at the time. He kept just one share, so he could keep attending annual meetings and receiving the company's reports. The sale netted him around $100 million after taxes.

He Bought Something No One Wanted

In February 1986, Jobs paid $10 million for Lucasfilm's computer graphics division - $5 million to acquire the technology rights from George Lucas, and $5 million as capital investment into the company. Lucas was happy to sell. The small team of animators and engineers had yet to make a single feature film. Jobs renamed the studio Pixar.

Nine Years of Doubt

The years after the purchase were difficult. Jobs poured his own money into Pixar to keep it alive, ultimately investing $50 million of his own funds. He considered selling the studio multiple times. The team struggled to find a sustainable business model, selling hardware and software before settling on animation.

Toy Story Changed Everything

On November 22, 1995, Pixar released Toy Story - the world's first entirely computer-animated feature film. It was a global hit. A week later, on November 29, Pixar went public on the NASDAQ. The stock was expected to open at $12-$14 per share. It closed the first day at $39, making Jobs's stake worth over $1 billion in a single trading session.

He had become a billionaire - not from Apple, and not yet from the iPhone. From a tiny animation studio that almost no one had believed in.

The Disney Sale

In 2006, Disney acquired Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. Jobs owned about 50% of Pixar at the time. His stake was worth $3.9 billion. By then, Jobs had already been running Apple as CEO for nearly a decade. The single share he had kept for 21 years was now worth considerably more.

Related Tags