How could Steve Jobs be fired?

He gave up the power to John Sculley when he made him president. He also gave him 16o shares of Apple stock. With that, & possibly the votes from other shareholders like Woz, Steve Jobs was fired.

And he needed it. It was a wake-up call. He got power and abused it. He's a better person now, because he was fired.

Apparently, technology company founders get fired all the time. Look at what happened to VMware co-founder, president and CEO Diane Greene. First the board tried to demote her then they booted her from her own company. And this was after recently financially successful quarters. Harsh.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

Cisco Systems founded by husband and wife Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner were both fired by the board and venture capitalists.
Their house became company headquarters and every room was used for building, testing, manufacturing, or shipping. They had no capital, so they charged all the startup costs on their credit cards.

It's VERY common for founders to get the ax.

He didn't own 51% of the stock.

He wasn't fired, but he was demoted. He remained an employee and on Apple's Board, but quit when he turned 30 and was dissatisfied with where his life was going. Then he founded NeXT, which Apple bought out years later and let to his return to the company.

Once your company goes PUBLIC you are no longer the OWNER. The best you can be at that point is an owner of a controlling majority of the stock.