The NeXT IPO That Never Happened
Hansen Hsu (2017, via David Kopec):
Had Steve Jobs’ first company not bought his second, history likely would have been very different. Apple might not exist today. No iPhone. But what could have happened to NeXT? Former NeXT software leader and then-Apple Senior VP of Software Avie Tevanian has donated to the Computer History Museum a historic document that hints at this alternate history: a draft of a November 1996 S-1 SEC statement, never completed or submitted, declaring that NeXT was planning to issue an initial public offering of 5 million shares of common stock.
[…]
Although NeXT’s business in 1996 was about evenly split between its existing OPENSTEP business and WebObjects, Jobs and the NeXT executives believed the WebObjects business would grow much faster than the steadily growing OPENSTEP business and eventually become a majority of its sales.
None of this ever happened. While Jobs was preparing for the NeXT IPO by developing the S-1 disclosure, his first company, Apple, was sinking.
2 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
"Had Steve Jobs’ first company not bought his second, history likely would have been very different. Apple might not exist today."
That Apple doesn't exist today. Instead we've got Microsoft V2, run by Steve Balmer V2.
@Matthew agreed. Saddens me when I think about it, but luckily I don't have to give the company any money going forward.
