Apple’s share keeps rising, driving the company Steve Jobs co-founded 44 years ago in his parents’ California home on the cusp of hitting a historic stock-market milestone: a market value of $2 trillion. Apple is more valuable than ever, and so is its CEO, Tim Cook, a newly-minted billionaire, with a “B.”
Anders Melin and Tom Metcalf for Bloomberg:
Cook, meantime, has joined one of the most elite clubs for CEOs who didn’t actually found the companies they run: his net worth has eclipsed $1 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Cook’s net worth estimate is based on an analysis of regulatory filings and applying the market performance of a typical wealthy investor to his proceeds from share sales. Cook, 59, said in 2015 that he plans to give most of his fortune away and has already gifted million of dollars worth of Apple shares. His wealth could be lower if he’s made other undisclosed charitable gifts.
Josh Rosenstock, a spokesman for Apple, declined to comment.
Even the pandemic, which has hammered many other parts of the economy, has been a boon to Apple and other big tech companies as people have gotten even more reliant on their products and services.
Their recent success stands in contrast to the economic upheaval caused by the coronavirus: a growing string of bankruptcies, tens of millions unemployed and massive public deficits.
MacDailyNews Take: Some salient quotes from the man who made Tim Cook a billionaire:
I was worth about over $1 million when I was 23, and over $10 million when I was 24, and over $100 million when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important. I never did it for the money. — Steve Jobs
Isn’t it kind of funny? You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it’s humorous, all the attention to it, because it’s hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that’s happened to me. — Steve Jobs
I saw a lot of other people at Apple, especially after we went public, how it changed them. A lot of people thought they had to start being rich. A few people went out and they bought Rolls-Royces, they bought homes, and their wives got plastic surgery. I saw these people who were really nice, simple people turn into these bizarre people. I made a promise to myself: I said, ’I’m not going to let this money ruin my life. — Steve Jobs
My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time. — Steve Jobs
“I was worth about over $1 million when I was 23, and over $10 million when I was 24, and over $100 million when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important. I never did it for the money.”
Good because about that time you realized that owning a nice house with a big screen and playing Super Nintendo wasn’t really worth all the effort.
You know who else found that out? Bill Gates, who’s currently spending most of his time thinking about how to give it away to Charity and cure diseases.
¿Is Bill Gates trying to cure disease? Since when? What he is doing so far is to try to push vaccines admitting they could kill many people as a side effect.
Cook understands how things work. Jobs chose wisely.
Where are you numbnuts the kept saying it was time for Tim Cook to be fired in the teens??? Mr. Cook has done a remarkable job that VERY few could have done better. Sure there were some missteps but on the whole – WOW! Steve Jobs knew what he as doing when he put Tim at the helm. Another great decision Mr. Jobs – Rest In Peace!
This is really an American viewpoint – because you have never had monarchy or aristocrats. European titled people have always known that splashing one”s cash in the manner of conspicuous consumption is gauche.
It is a different culture where money comes second to manners.
This is why I really value the time I had meeting famous people in my shop, and ferrying my kids around to little league in Dad’s taXi. They were the best times of my life, I look forward to sharing more Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds with Steve when I join him. Gosh darn it I impress myself, I really am THAT good.
Jobs had the excitement of a Fox News radio host while Cook drones on like a host on NPR. Jobs entertained like a magician; Cook informs like a school lecturer. Zingers vs. data points.
Just listen to Steve’s address to the graduating Stanford Srs. Few can powerfully encapsulate as he did and that was just once instance of his acute vision, sensitive and verve for life.
Agreed, per Cook. He’s an excellent manager of a very complex spreadsheet and has culled astonishing profits. The fact that “he’s not a product” guy says way more than what’s on the surface of the phrase.