May 23, 1985: Bitter about being ousted from his position running the Macintosh division, Steve Jobs attempts to stage a boardroom coup to seize control of Apple from CEO John Sculley.
The 30-year-old Apple co-founder plans to overthrow Sculley while the CEO is away on a business trip in China. Unfortunately for Jobs, he makes a critical mistake when he tries to recruit the support of Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée, who informs Sculley of the plot.
It’s the beginning of the end for Jobs’ first tenure at Apple.
Steve Jobs’ fall from grace at Apple
What is amazing about Jobs’ ouster from Apple is just how rapidly it all happened. Just two years earlier, Sculley joined Apple as its third CEO, handpicked by Jobs. The idea was that Jobs, who was Apple’s chairman, would run the company hand-in-hand with Sculley.
By 1985, however, tensions ran high in Cupertino. Jobs became a disruptive force. He regularly got involved with projects that had nothing to do with him. His brusque managerial style contained flashes of the greatness he would show later in his career, but without a lot of the other skills that would eventually turn him into a great leader.
After a strong start, Macintosh sales also proved disappointing — which added fuel to the fire.
Jobs’ clashes with Sculley got so bad that, during an April 1985 board meeting, the CEO threatened to resign unless Jobs was stripped of his role as executive VP and manager of the Macintosh division. As a result, Jobs lost operating power inside Apple. However, because Sculley genuinely respected him, Jobs remained as chairman.
Steve Jobs plots a boardroom coup
Jobs wasn’t happy, though. He pleaded with Sculley to get his old job back. When that didn’t work, he flat-out suggested that Sculley quit. Sculley refused. Jobs then began secretly planning a takeover of Apple and recruiting people to help him. Jobs found some supporters inside the company, but he was warned that the majority of the board wouldn’t side with him.
Nonetheless, he ignored that advice and continued with his ill-conceived Apple boardroom coup.
Steve Jobs’ failed takeover from Apple CEO John Sculley
One of the people Jobs told about his plans was Jean-Louis Gassée, an executive nine years his senior who ran Apple’s European operations division. Gassée relayed the information to Sculley and Al Eisenstat, Apple’s chief legal officer. The CEO immediately canceled a planned trip to China.
Sculley went on to call a May 24 meeting, which he attended along with Jobs. Jobs made his case by saying that he thought Sculley was bad for Apple, and the wrong person to run it.
“You really should leave this company,” Jobs told Sculley. “I’m more worried about Apple than I have ever been. I’m afraid of you. You don’t know how to operate, and never have. John, you manage by monologue! You have no understanding of the product development process.”
Apple leaders back Sculley as Jobs’ boardroom coup attempt fizzles
Despite this, Apple’s board made it clear that it would support Sculley. The attempted boardroom coup failed. And after a few more days of back and forth, Jobs was pushed even further from power. He moved to an out-of-the-way office at Apple, which he labeled “Siberia” because of its distance from the company’s heart.
A few months later, Jobs resigned to start a company called NeXT. Unlike the events depicted in Danny Boyle’s movie Steve Jobs, Sculley and the Apple co-founder never spoke to one another again.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
One response to “Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs attempts a boardroom coup”
Jobs definitely forgot the reason why he hired Scully in the first place – because the company had outgrown the management abilities of its founders, which includes a mastery of boardroom politics, among other things – something that the CEO of a company like Pepsico would have. Jobs was simply unmatched and, as noted in the article, Jobs’ highly abrasive manner played a critical role in his undoing.
As for Gasseé, he would blow it in his own way a few years later when Amelio wanted to buy Be from Gasseé. Gasseé hiked the asking price to an unreasonable level and Amelio turned him down. Be, which didn’t have much of a chance in the platform wars, petered out and went under. Thanks to Gasseé, Amelio then turned to Jobs and bought NeXt instead.
As for the Jobs and Gasseé rivalry, what goes around comes around. And, of course, during the interim Jobs learned the cutthroat methods of Sculley and gave Amelio the boot to assume control of Apple.