Most Read
1.
Which Asian country holds the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves?
2.
Thai billionaire family’s CP Group-led consortium requests termination of 3-airport high-speed rail contract
3.
Argentina beat Switzerland 3-1 to reach World Cup semifinals
4.
Dozens of UK universities at risk of insolvency amid lower-than-expected international enrollment
5.
Two-time IMO gold medalist Wei Dongyi wins another prestigious Chinese science award
6.
Can a cut avocado continue to ripen?
7.
7 prominent scientists and experts who left US, UK for China in 2026
8.
Which is the most livable city globally in 2026?
9.
Captain detained after Phu Quoc speedboat capsize kills 15 Indian tourists
10.
Massive fire in Bangkok bar kills at least 27
The boardroom battle that forced Steve Jobs out of Apple, as recalled by former CEO John Sculley
By Phong Ngo  July 12, 2026 | 08:38 pm PT Get VnExpress first in Google Search
See more of the news you trust. Make VnExpress a preferred source to prioritise our updates in your Google search results
Former Apple CEO John Sculley is best known for defeating Steve Jobs in a 1985 boardroom battle that forced the Apple co-founder out of the company.
“I’m asking Steve to step down,” Sculley told the company’s board of directors on April 11, 1985 “and you can back me on it . . . or you’re going to have to find yourselves a new CEO.”
The board sided with Sculley, leaving Jobs, in his words, “very publicly out.”
During a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, Jobs openly talked about getting fired from Apple, calling it “devastating” and blaming Sculley for it, as
“We had just released our finest creation – the Macintosh – a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired,” he said
“Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. And so, at 30, I was out… and very publicly out
“What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.”
 |
Steve Jobs (L) and John Sculley posing with a Macintosh computer in 1984. Photo from Facebook |
When Sculley joined Apple in 1983, the company was still in its early years, and its board did not believe co-founder Jobs was ready to serve as CEO. Apple’s first CEO, Michael Scott, had already departed, while his successor, Mike Markkula, regarded himself as only a temporary leader
Jobs and Markkula led the search for a permanent CEO, initially seeking a technology executive. After interviewing around 20 candidates, most from the technology sector, Jobs rejected each of them. He eventually turned to Sculley, who had risen to CEO of Pepsi in just a decade and built a reputation as one of corporate America’s top marketers after helping create the “Pepsi Challenge” campaign that fueled the cola wars of the 1970s
Jobs first met Sculley after Thanksgiving in 1982. Over the following five months, they met nearly every weekend as Jobs tried to persuade him to leave Pepsi for Apple. “We got to know each other very, very well, but at the end of it I said, ‘Steve, I’ve thought about it and I’m not coming to Apple,’” Sculley told CNBC Make Itin 2018
“You want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” Jobs, who then was in his 20s, told Sculley
The question, combined with a compensation package that included a $1 million signing bonus, a $1 million golden parachute clause, options on 350,000 Apple shares, a $1 million salary and relocation expenses, ultimately convinced Sculley to join Apple
Sculley became Apple’s CEO on April 11, 1983. Jobs remained chairman while continuing to lead the Macintosh division, overseeing development of the company’s flagship personal computer
obs viewed Sculley as a mentor, and the two worked closely during Sculley’s first two years at Apple. While Sculley managed the company’s day-to-day operations, Jobs focused on the Macintosh business. They frequently met, shared meals and appeared to share the same vision for Apple’s future
The fallout
The close partnership did not last
Their relationship began to unravel after the launch of Apple’s Macintosh Office initiative in 1985, which combined a Macintosh computer, a LaserWriter printer and Adobe PostScript software into an office computing system
Sculley told Business Insider in 2015 that disappointing Macintosh sales marked the turning point. He said Jobs blamed the computer’s $2,495 price tag and argued it should have launched at $1,995. Sculley maintained the higher price was necessary to finance Apple’s landmark 1984 Macintosh advertising campaign
Jobs also wanted Apple to cut the Macintosh’s price by $500 and shift advertising spending from the Apple II to the Macintosh. Sculley said he opposed both proposals because he believed they would push Apple into a loss. He added that Apple engineers concluded the Macintosh’s disappointing sales stemmed from technological limitations rather than its price or marketing
The disagreement escalated when Sculley told Jobs he would take the issue to Apple’s board. Apple vice chairman Markkula was later asked to review the dispute after hearing both executives’ positions separately
“Seven or eight days later, he came back to the board and said, ‘I agree with John, I don’t agree with Steve,’” Sculley recounted. He said the board then told Jobs: “Steve, we want you to step down from running the Macintosh division. You’re being disruptive in the organisation.”
Jobs remained Apple chairman but lost responsibility for the Macintosh team and its employees. Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, who had left the company earlier that year, later told The New York Times that Jobs “could never see himself in second place at Apple.”
Months later, Jobs resigned after selling about $20 million worth of Apple stock and announcing plans to launch NeXT, a new computer company. In Jobs’ resignation letter, he wrote that “the company appears to be adopting a hostile posture toward me.”
Apple acquired NeXT and its software for about $400 million in December 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company in a deal that surprised the technology industry
In a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs said his departure from Apple ultimately proved liberating. “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” he said. “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again.”
 |
John Sculley, former CEO of Pepsi and Apple Inc. Photo courtesy of The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania, U.S |
After Apple
Sculley has disputed the view that Jobs was fired from Apple
“Steve was never fired,” he said during the Engage 2015 Conference in Prague, Czech Republic. “He took a sabbatical and was still chairman of the board.”
“He was down, no one pushed him, but he was off the Mac, which was his deal – he never forgave me for that,” he said, adding that their friendship was “never repaired.”
Sculley remained Apple’s CEO for eight years after Jobs left, leading the company for a decade in total. After departing Apple in 1993, Sculley co-founded data-driven marketing company Zeta Global in 2007 and later founded smartphone maker Obi Worldphone, which targeted emerging markets. He has also invested in several companies, including MetroPCS, Wine Clip and PopTech
Looking back on the dispute, he also said he believed Apple’s board should have done more to prevent the split. Speaking at the 13th annual Forbes Global CEO Conference in 2013, he said the directors understood both Apple and Jobs before recruiting him and could have found a way for the two men, who were “supposedly inseparable,” to continue working together
He has also credited Jobs with shaping his approach to leadership. Reflecting on their years together at Apple, he told CNBC that the greatest lesson he learned from Jobs was “the incredible combination of an insatiable curiosity combined with an obsessive desire to change the world, and how much impact that kind of leadership could have on not just the company but on society in general.”
He acknowledged that the confrontation could have ended differently
“What would have happened if we hadn’t have had that showdown?… I did not have the breadth of experience at that time to really appreciate just how different leadership is when you are shaping an industry, as Bill Gates did or Steve Jobs did, versus when you’re a competitor in an industry, in a public company, where you don’t make mistakes because if you lose, you’re out,” he told Forbesin 2013
He said his greatest regret was failing to try to repair their relationship before it reached a breaking point
“Why I didn’t go to Steve Jobs and say, ‘Steve, let’s figure out how you can come back and lead your company.’ I didn’t do that, it was a terrible mistake on my part. I can’t figure out why I didn’t have the wisdom to do that.”
