At the same time, he sold the computer division of Pixar, but
left the creative computer animation division intact. He believed
that someday it would change the motion picture industry.
“Pixar’s vision was to tell stories—to make real films,” he explains.
“Our vision was to make the world’s first animated feature film—
completely computer synthetic, sets, characters, everything.” 49
Until that happened, Pixar was costing Jobs a fortune. After
Tin Toy won an Academy Award, he got help. In 1991, Jobs man-
aged to convince the Disney corporation to fund, promote, and
distribute three full-length Pixar movies, a miraculous feat of
persuasion since Pixar was losing so much money.
Four years later Pixar came out with Toy Story. It was a smash
hit. As Jobs imagined, its success launched the computer-
animation film industry.
Taking advantage of the movie’s popularity, Jobs took the com-
pany’s stock public. It was a bold action because the company
was not yet turning a profit. But the public believed in Jobs. The
initial price for the stock was $22 per share, but the demand was
so great that it rose to $39 per share in just one day. Jobs, who
owned thirty million shares, became a billionaire overnight.
Return to Apple
In the decade since Jobs’s departure, Apple also had its ups and
downs. By 1996, the company was losing money. It had also lost
its reputation as an unconventional, cutting-edge company. Apple
computers no longer boasted an innovative design, or the same
attention to detail they had been known for.
Sculley had been forced out in 1993. The new CEO, Gil
Amelio, thought that Apple computers needed a new innovative
operating system. He wanted Apple to buy NeXT to get their
operating system. He also wanted to rehire Jobs. He thought
bringing Jobs back would excite the public and raise Apple’s sales.
“I’m not just buying software. I’m buying Steve Jobs,” 50 Amelio
said at the time.
Although he rarely talked about it, Jobs still missed Apple. A
few months earlier, when Karen Steel, a former Apple employee
Down but Not Out
67