The real story behind Steve Jobs 'getting fired' from Apple
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It's legend in the computer industry: In the mid '80s, Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple, the company he co-founded and went on to eventually lead to worldwide dominance, after a boardroom battle with the CEO at the time, John Sculley.
Over the years, the story got altered and adapted — to the point where many assumed Jobs was fired, either by Sculley or Apple's board, which wasn't the case. Jobs did lose a boardroom showdown with Sculley (which actually played out over a week or so), one where Jobs' plan of moving marketing dollars from the Apple II to Macintosh Office was rejected by the board. That led to Jobs being stripped of his leadership of the Macintosh team and pushed to leave the company.
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In other words, Jobs ouster was tantamount to a firing, but not an actual firing.
Good information, but not as good as knowing Sculley's thoughts and reflections about the incident, some 30+ years on. But that's just what we got when we sat down to talk to the former Apple CEO for Mashable's MashTalk podcast.
Image: Hindustan Times/Getty Images
Now 78, Sculley has gained a new appreciation for founders since his time at Apple, and has gone on to become one himself: He co-founded Zeta Global, a data-driven marketing company, in 2007 and founded Obi Worldphone, which builds smartphones for emerging markets. He's also been an investor in many other companies since he himself was forced out of Apple in 1993, including MetroPCS, Wine Clip, and PopTech.
Sculley had a lot to say about the state of the tech industry and the current backlash against it. On the podcast he shares his thoughts on what social media has done to society, where he stands on government regulation of tech, and the fundamentals we need to stick to as we try to integrate technology into our lives.
You can subscribe to MashTalk on iTunes or Google Play, and we'd appreciate it if you could leave a review. Feel free to hit us with questions and comments by tweeting to @mashtalk or attaching the #MashTalk hashtag. We welcome all feedback.
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