) is one of the world’s most recognizable companies. With a market valuation well north of $2 trillion, after briefly touching $3 trillion last year, its devices are universal; used everywhere from Alaska to Zimbabwe. From the advent of the personal computer, to the dark days following Steve Jobs' ouster, to the unprecedented success of the iPhone, Apple is easily one of the biggest, most successful companies on Earth. And here’s how the tech giant made it all happen.
Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs delivers the keynote address at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, June 6, 2011. REUTERS/Beck DiefenbackApple’s first CEO was Michael Scott, who came from National Semiconductor in 1977. Mike Markkula, an early investor and Apple's third employee, took over from Scott in 1981, leading the company until 1983.
Wozniak left the same year, after becoming frustrated with no longer working as an engineer. He sold much of his stock on the way out.Sculley led Apple from 1983 through 1993, taking the company from annual revenue of $569 million to $8.3 billion. But the board later fired him, blaming him for moving Apple computers to PowerPC chips instead of Intel processors and for the failed launch of the Newton PDA.
In 1996 Gil Amelio became CEO and purchased Steve Jobs' NeXT for $400 million to use that company's operating system in Apple's computers. The next year, however, with Apple’s losses continuing to mount, Amelia was fired and Jobs was named interim CEO of Apple.