Silicon’s first Valley Steve Jobs refused to offer a third of Apple for $ 50,000 – today its share would have a value of nearly $ 1 trillion
Many people can kick that they do not buy bitcoins or have invested in NVIDIA stocks earlier – but few will be able to go to a larger agreement than atari co -founder Nolan Bushnell, the first Silicon chief Valley late Steve Jobs.
Young jobs offered a gaming magnate an agreement on the eyes: buy a third Apple for just $ 50,000. What could come for many as a shock is that Bushnell refused.
Since then, Apple has grown to 3.1 trillion feelings with more than billions of iPhone sitting in the back pockets and more than 100 million Mac users around the world – and if Bushnell concludes an agreement, its cut would make it $ 1 trillion today.
But Bushnell does not cry over the opportunity of Missus
For the first time, Bushnell witnessed Jobs’s potential as an entrepreneur at the age of 70, when Atari ended early as a school designer as a technician and a game designer.
Jobs was an essential engineer “solving problems in the terrain” in Atari, Bushnell recalled, but his mentality of the line also meant tension in the office. Atari co -founder strategically employed jobs during night shifts and knew that Wozniak would also join and help in projects such as the Breakout brick game. But jobs would also slip into his office to tell Bushnell that the other employed was not good in soldering and offered to instruct them. Bushnell acknowledged that Jobs was a genius – Albiet, complicated.
“He was a tough person,” Bushnell said ABC News In 2015. “He was very clever. He was often the smartest person in the room and would say it to everyone. It is generally not a good social dynamics.”
But a few years later, the technical pioneer is not quietly rejected over his choice.
“I could own a third of Apple computer for $ 50,000 and I refused,” Bushnell said in an interview. “I have a wonderful family, I have a great woman, my life is amazing. I’m not sure if I was Uber, Uber, Uber, Uber Rich, I would have it all.”
In fact, Bushnell even thinks that Apple may not have Ben successful if he takes the agreement. And his potential payout may not have interfered to this height of trillion dollars.
“I’m still an Apple fan and you know that I think a back view is 20/20,” he said Radar In 2013, When he asked about his decision to say no. “I can go through the very easy thread that, what Steve, has led me to introduce him to Don Valentine, and introduced him to Mike Markcl, who is as responsible for Apple as Steve Woz (Niak) and Jobs.”
It’s not the first technical boss to miss billions
Bushnell is not the Onely that missed critical business opportunities that would start them in the position of a billionaire – there are others who threw it into large Apple stores.
Ronald Wayne, a lesser -known third co -founder of Apple, also worked at Atari’s electronic company when he appeared as a friend of Jobs to help convince Wozniak to formize Apple’s introduction. Wayne even wrote a contract and wrote that he would have a 10% stake in the technical company, while Jobs and Wozniak would get a 45% stake.
However, less than two weeks after the document proposal, Wayne sold his stake for only $ 800, and also reaped $ 1,500 to give up any claim to the company. Looking back, this is massive incorrect steps, as its 10% share could now be worth between $ 75 billion and $ 300 billion today. His unnecessary opportunity is not as sharp as Bushnell’s – and the decision mainly on the desire to have financial stability in his life.
“Work and Woz did not head to Nikla to rub,” Wayne said. Business Insider In 2017.
The co -founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley, Steven Chen and Jawed Karim could also sit in a large nest today if they did not sell their company so soon.
YouTube creators sold their popular Google Video Platform for $ 1.65 billion in autumn 2006 – each received millions of dollars worth shares. Hurley received shares of a company worth around $ 345 million, according to The New York TimesWhile Chen accepts about $ 326 million in value. Karim, who left the company early to return to school, won $ 64 million shares. At the beginning there are enthusiasm for the agreement, but the remorse of the buyer would be potential less than 20 years later.
Today, YouTube is awarded $ 550 billion – 3333 times higher than its market ceiling almost two decades ago, adapted to inflation. If Hurley and Chen accept the same stock agreement as they did in 2006, everyone could have more than $ 100 billion in their bank accounts.
(Tagstranslate) Apple