Former General Electric CEO Passed on Buying Apple for $2 Billion in 1996

[MacBH928]

Then Apple would have gone the way of the compaq.

It surprises me how Apple used to be so small and on budget yet they built their own stuff like hardware and software. I believe in a 1998 keynote SJ said that there are 10 or 20 million Apple computers out there(as if this was a lot).

This now is the number of iphone units sold in a single year's quarter.

 

[sarge]

Amelio was frantically searching for a MacOS successor. WinNT, Solaris and BeOS were all part of his and his CTO's consideration. Until finally they approached NeXT. SJ then "engineered" a coup to oust Amelio after Apple had acquired NeXT. The iMac was started under Jobs' lead unless you consider Amelio laying the ground work for NeXT's acquisition as a start. However, few people know that it wasn't Steve that came up with the iMac name or the Think Different campaign.
Google "Ken Segall".
If not for him, we'd all have MacMans on our desks and maybe PhoneMans

Besides, this GE story has little merit. Hindsight is always 20/20, but facts often get confused.
The iPod created the halo effect that lead to increasing Mac sales and laid the base for the iPhone. It was most definitely not Steve's first project, nor was it his invention, but I guess most people never read up on Apple's history or have lived thru it.

When Apple released the iPod, all I saw was a Trojan Horse. I spent every last dime I had to buy some shares of Apple in the neighborhood of $12 ( I was a broke college grad at the time). I sold it a few years after they split when it reached over 100 (to my lasting regret).

That Steve proved to be successful outside of Apple is not surprising and he would no doubt have enjoyed continued success elsewhere....but anyone who has ever been on a team or played in a band knows, it's all about the chemistry. Jon Ive was already at Apple -fortuitously - and Ive inarguably had as much to do w/the success of those products as did Tony Fadell, Avie Tevanian and the rest of the engineers at Apple. I assign the entity of Apple a pivotal role in the story because for Steve, Apple wasn't just a brand, it was personal. Take an over achiever, surround them with a stellar team, stimulate their drive and ambition with a deep conviction and emotional desire and you had better just get out of the way of that train.

 

[Jon the Heretic]

There is something called hindsight that makes some think they are geniuses
[doublepost=1459484692][/doublepost]
Or guess
[doublepost=1459484977][/doublepost]

Dude, relax. His management theories are probably running

His management theories are running the Gates of Hell and every ring in between. You must really hate Apple

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

Again, a myth.

Not really. As part of the cash infusion from Microsoft. all pending lawsuits over Windows stealing Apple copyrights were settled for good. You could argue that Microsoft got more out of the deal than Apple. They got the Feds off their back while at the same time stealing all of Apple's copyrights at pennies on the dollar, ensuring Windows would be the dominant OS for decades to come.

With Jack Wright's style of doing business, he probably would have argued that Apple give up on Mac OS and just start making high end Windows PCs. He would have never tolerated Steve Jobs for a month.

 

[happydude]

assume all else equal and history would have continued as is...GE as a giant war contractor...the government would most definitely be inside our GE-iphones. ridiculous to think about aside from the fact that the two companies are so insanely different in product and corporate philosophy. we can all be glad apple was not bought up by GE.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Not really. As part of the cash infusion from Microsoft. all pending lawsuits over Windows stealing Apple copyrights were settled for good. You could argue that Microsoft got more out of the deal than Apple. They got the Feds off their back while at the same time stealing all of Apple's copyrights at pennies on the dollar, ensuring Windows would be the dominant OS for decades to come.

With Jack Wright's style of doing business, he probably would have argued that Apple give up on Mac OS and just start making high end Windows PCs. He would have never tolerated Steve Jobs for a month.

Yes, really. They did not get the Feds "off their backs" because the Feds weren't even on their backs at the time, and what they did get back-ridden about later had nothing whatsoever to do with any arrangements with Apple. As for the patents, nothing was ever adjudicated, so we can only speculate about what was at stake (though the rumors at the time were it had something to do with QuickTime).

As for the "cash infusion" it was $150M in stock. Not a huge sum even then. The PR value of the Steve and Bill detente show and Microsoft's commitment to five more years of Office was much more significant.
[doublepost=1459545904][/doublepost]

Sun and Oracle were both thinking about it at the time (Ellison was buddies with McNally and Jobs). Larry said if he bought Apple, he'd just give it back to Steve. Think 2 billion was too much at the time.

True, Oracle was a player then too. Steve and Larry were close buddies but I not sure either one of them was on very good terms with McNealy (who could make Ellison look like Mr Humble). The market cap of Apple was probably not a lot short of $2B at the time and they were still sitting on quite a bit of cash so it probably would have been a fair price, but equally certain is that the investment would have become so much sand if it had gone to GE or Sun.
[doublepost=1459546176][/doublepost]

I never argued that the cash infusion 'saved' Apple - that is conjecture on your part, rather it is my contention that the settlement was a gesture which served Microsoft in their legal battle with Netscape, et all. Of course my opinion with respect to the MS cash injection is based on inference, but at least it is supported by facts and not just a confederacy of dunces:

Nice effort at the literary reference, but your history is bent. The antitrust case was entirely about Microsoft's dominance of the IBM-PC market (AKA, "the relevant market" in the Findings of Fact). Nothing to do with Apple. You could look that up.

 

[sarge]

To no one in particular I say, mediocrity persuades me not.

 

[JohnnyAppleSeed1964]

Former chairman and CEO of General Electric Jack Welch had an opportunity to purchase Apple for $2 billion and passed at the chance, according to information shared by Bob Wright in an interview with The New York Post about his book The Wright Stuff: From NBC to Autism Speaks.

Back in 1996, when Apple was struggling ahead of Steve Jobs' return, then CEO Michael Spindler, who took over after John Sculley was ousted, was "practically begging" General Electric to buy Apple.

A purchase by General Electric would have radically changed the company's history and it's questionable whether Apple would still be around as a brand today had that happened. Later that same year, after GE declined to make the purchase, Apple bought NeXT for $427 million and Steve Jobs returned to lead the company in 1997.

One of Jobs' first major projects was the iPod, which launched in 2001 and set the company on its current path. The iPhone followed in 2007, the iPad came in 2010, and the Apple Watch, Apple's newest product, launched in 2015.

As of today, Apple is worth more than $600 billion, while General Electric is worth less than half of that. In fact, Apple holds more than two thirds of the value of General Electric in cash, with over $215 billion on hand.

Article Link: Former General Electric CEO Passed on Buying Apple for $2 Billion in 1996

[doublepost=1459616440][/doublepost]

Former chairman and CEO of General Electric Jack Welch had an opportunity to purchase Apple for $2 billion and passed at the chance, according to information shared by Bob Wright in an interview with The New York Post about his book The Wright Stuff: From NBC to Autism Speaks.

Back in 1996, when Apple was struggling ahead of Steve Jobs' return, then CEO Michael Spindler, who took over after John Sculley was ousted, was "practically begging" General Electric to buy Apple.

A purchase by General Electric would have radically changed the company's history and it's questionable whether Apple would still be around as a brand today had that happened. Later that same year, after GE declined to make the purchase, Apple bought NeXT for $427 million and Steve Jobs returned to lead the company in 1997.

One of Jobs' first major projects was the iPod, which launched in 2001 and set the company on its current path. The iPhone followed in 2007, the iPad came in 2010, and the Apple Watch, Apple's newest product, launched in 2015.

As of today, Apple is worth more than $600 billion, while General Electric is worth less than half of that. In fact, Apple holds more than two thirds of the value of General Electric in cash, with over $215 billion on hand.

Article Link: Former General Electric CEO Passed on Buying Apple for $2 Billion in 1996

 

[IJ Reilly]

To no one in particular I say, mediocrity persuades me not.

To you, in particular, I say: what the heck are you talking about?

 

[jackth29]

Thankfully GE passed. That being said, I've been really liking GE lately.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

In what world would Steve Jobs have stopped what he was doing at NeXT to go join GE as some SVP?

He wasn't really doing much at NeXT by that point because it was in the toilet. His focus was Pixar.