Caleb
Harold
Bill
Gates Biography
Early
Life
Steven
Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to
Joanne Schieble (later Joanne Simpson) and Abdulfattah "John"
Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed
son up for adoption. His father, Abdul Fattah Jindal, was a Syrian political
science professor, and his mother, Joanne Scheele, worked as a speech
therapist. Shortly after Steve was placed for adoption, his biological parents
married and had another child, Mona Simpson. It was not until Jobs was 27 that
he was able to uncover information on his biological parents. As an infant,
Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara
worked as an accountant, and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist. The
family lived in Mountain View, California, within the area that would later
become known as Silicon Valley. As a boy, Jobs and his father would work on
electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to take apart and
reconstruct electronics, a hobby that instilled confidence, tenacity and
mechanical prowess in young Jobs.
Apple Computers
Jobs
and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by
democratizing the technology and making the machines smaller, cheaper,
intuitive and accessible to everyday consumers. Wozniak conceived a series of
user-friendly personal computers, and—with Jobs in charge of marketing—Apple
initially marketed the computers for $666.66 each. The Apple I earned the
corporation around $774,000. Three years after the release of Apple's second model,
the Apple II, the company's sales increased by 700 percent, to $139 million. In
1980, Apple Computer became a publicly traded company, with a market value of
$1.2 billion by the end of its very first day of trading. Jobs looked to
marketing expert John Sculley of Pepsi-Cola to help fill the role of Apple's
president.
Departure From Apple
In
1985, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO to begin a new hardware and software company
called NeXT, Inc. The following year Jobs purchased an animation company from
George Lucas, which later became Pixar Animation Studios. Believing in Pixar's
potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money in the company.
Pixar Studios went on to produce wildly popular animation films such as Toy
Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Pixar's films have
netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve
Jobs Disney's largest shareholder.
Pancreatic Cancer
In
2003, Jobs discovered that he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable
form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of immediately opting for surgery, Jobs
chose to alter his pescovegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment
options. For nine months, Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple's board of
directors nervous. Executives feared that shareholders would pull their stock
if word got out that their CEO was ill. But in the end, Jobs' confidentiality
took precedence over shareholder disclosure. In 2004, he had a successful
surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor. True to form, in subsequent years Jobs
disclosed little about his health.
Final Years
On
October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that its co-founder had passed away. After
battling pancreatic cancer for nearly a decade, Steve Jobs died in Palo Alto.
He was 56 years old.
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