“The summer of 1996 was an important period of transition for Steve Jobs,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“Pixar, which had gone public the previous November, had lost half its market cap,” P.E.D. reports. “NeXT was collapsing. And in a few short months Jobs would sell what was left of the company — its NextSTEP operating system — to Apple, where it became the foundation of OS X.”
P.E.D. reports, “The late Louis Rukeyser had no way of knowing what was brewing when he invited Jobs to appear on PBS’ Wall $treet Week that summer.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Edward Weber” for the heads up.]
wow – that was awesome – thanks MDN
Jobs has always been thinking ahead – really admirable
if he only knew the glory to come for Apple and for him, a 2nd time, back then!
Wait, when are the Toy Story CD-ROMs coming out?
If you have to ask now, you’ve already missed it. Perhaps it’s the reference to CDs without explaining their content. The Toy Story CDs were games that could be played on your computer. My son had them all. He was barely a toddler, so they were for old Mac OS 8 & 9 and we don’t have them anymore (unfortunately).
Miss that Louis. He was a business nerd.
Awesome clip. Its interesting to see it with the full knowledge of where it went years after the interview.
Always the visionary, and here tactful, extremely intelligent and precisely spot-on. Steve Jobs the powerhouse locomotive running the future.
“The way out is not to slash/burn, but to innovate.”
Words from the Master. Take note US Gov’t and Corporations. Get the economy moving. Do something creative. Hesitating…stalling…budget slashing… only perpetuates/increases the pain and accelerates failure.
Easy to lay it all on the government. How about businesses? Where’s their innovation? They’re going to have to come up with something other than lower my taxes and remove regulations.
“Corporations” = Business. Reread the post.
Dammit! I wanted to see the special treasures!
Thx mdn!
Don’t forget to thank PED (Philip Elmer-DeWitt) as well. He not only reported it with some lovely background context, but may also have uploaded the video from a VHS recording to youtube himself.
Too bad, the comment section on his site is so overtly javascript friendly that I can’t comment there using Firefox. This is where MDN truly shines/rocks. Thanks, MDN, and PED if you happen to be reading this.
Almost one year later Steve Jobs would be giving a post-WWDC keynote wherein he just took questions from the audience for forty-five minutes; THAT is the video you need to see.
Although he was ever mindful of who was now signing his paycheck, it didn’t keep him from saying what he really thought of Apple, Larry Ellison, connectivity, and an idealized future for us all, using the web to stay connected 24/7.
But before that, you need to read late 2006 interview with Jobs where he talks about how Apple will become industry innovator again. No one could guess then how come Jobs is so sure about the innovation, and what else could be done when whole industry, including Microsoft, already spend billions of dollars per year for “innovation”.
And you also need to read Jobs earlier interview, where he says that if he was Apple, then he could milk Macintosh for what its worth and move to the “next great thing”.
Many thought that Jobs was incredibly arrogant and/or delusional, but he was The Visionary.
OS 8 & OS 9 (as well as 7.6) was milking the Macintosh while actively rewriting the “NeXT great thing,” OSX.
G4Dualie wheres the link?
@G4Dualie – Is this the session you were referring to ?
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/58082/16-Brilliant-Insights-From-Steve-Jobs-Keynote-Circa-1997.aspx
Thanks so much for the link. Louis Rukeyser and Wall Street Week. Wow; I didn’t know Steve Jobs was ever on that show.
Goodness. The vision then….