Steve Jobs





Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder (with Steve
Wozniak) of Apple Computer. He is also regarded as a pioneer in computing
for seeing the potential in a Xerox PARC demonstration of the GUI and mouse,
thus causing Apple Computer to unleash the Apple Macintosh.

Born to Joanne and (?) Simpson (his biological sister is the novelist Mona
Simpson), Steve was adopted soon after birth by Paul and Clara Jobs of
Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California.

After graduating from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, in
1972 Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he dropped out
after one semester. In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and
began attending meetings of the "Homebrew Computer Club" with Stephen
Wozniak. He took a job at Atari Inc., designing computer games with his
friend, Wozniak.

In 1976, Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak, 26, founded Apple Computer Co. in the
Jobs' family garage. Jobs and Wozniak put together their first computer,
called the Apple I. They marketed it at a price of $666.66. In 1983, Jobs
lured John Sculley from Pepsi-Cola to run Apple by telling Sculley that he
could accomplish something more than just "selling sugar water". In 1985,
after an internal power struggle, he was stripped of his duties by Sculley
and ousted from Apple. He departed to found NeXT Computer later that decade.

In 1986 Jobs bought Pixar, an Emeryville, California computer animation
studio, from its founder George Lucas for $10 million. In 1991 Jobs married
Laurene Powell; they currently have three children. In 1996, Apple bought
NeXT for $200 million, and in 1997 Jobs returned to Apple as interim CEO
after the departure of Gil Amelio. In 2000, he dropped the "interim" from
his title after working for several years with a salary of $1 until Apple
Computers became profitable, and he became full CEO of Apple.