“Apple’s former chief executive John Sculley is perhaps best known as the man who first mentored and then clashed with Steve Jobs, leading to the late co-founder’s exit from the firm in 1985,” BBC News reports. “Mr Sculley was ultimately forced out himself by Apple’s board in 1993.”
“According to Steve Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, Mr Sculley and Mr Jobs’ relationship also started off well,” The Beeb reports. “But as the book makes clear neither man emerged untarnished from their subsequent falling out – something the BBC put to Mr Sculley.”
From what I’ve heard from people who have read the book Walter Isaacson cleared up some of the myths – that I never really did fire Steve Jobs and that Apple was actually a very profitable company. When I left Apple it had $2bn (£1.3bn) of cash. It was the most profitable computer company in the world – not just personal computers – and Apple was the number one selling computer. So the myth that I fired Steve wasn’t true and the myth that I destroyed Apple, that wasn’t true either. A lot of things happened after I left before Steve came back. – John Sculley
Much more in the full interview, including the Newton, Macintosh Office, ARM, and more, here.
MacDailyNews Take: ‘Twas the unprepared sugar water salesbozo who signed the poorly-written contract that unleashed the Dark Age of Personal Computing on the world; a darkness from which most are only now emerging. The fool had a penchant for making unbelievably massive mistakes. Sculley makes Steve Ballmer look like a business genius.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
John Sculley: I wish I told Steve Jobs ‘This is your company, let’s figure out how you can come back and be CEO’ – Septemeber 13, 2011
Steve Jobs steps down the first time: The 1985 press coverage – August 26, 2011
John Sculley: Apple’s big mistake was hiring me as CEO – October 14, 2010
Sculley: Uh, maybe I shouldn’t have fired Steve Jobs – June 7, 2010