91-year-old Apple founder claims he still owns 10% stake in company that could make him obscenely rich
The 91-year-old forgotten co-founder of Apple says he still owns a 10% stake in the company, which would make him one of the richest people on Earth.
Most people know the Apple origin story. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, a garage in California and the launch of one of the most valuable companies in human history. What fewer people know is that there was a third co-founder - one who walked away from it all just two weeks after it began.
Ronald G. Wayne co-founded the Apple Computer Company alongside Jobs and Wozniak on 1 April 1976, while all three were working together at the game maker Atari.
Jobs and Wozniak each received a 45 percent stake in the fledgling business while Wayne got 10 percent.
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Less than two weeks later, Wayne removed his name from the Apple partnership entirely.
According to multiple reports, Wanye sold his stake for $800, though Wayne himself has pushed back on that description, insisting the cheque he received in the post was a 'gratuity' rather than a sale, PCMag reported.
In an interview with Fast Company, Wayne explained: "But all along, from then to now, I still held and now hold, as far as I'm concerned, a 10% stake.
"I never sold my interest in Apple to anyone at any time for any amount of money whatsoever."
In 1977, he received a further $1,500, reportedly in exchange for forfeiting any future claims against the company.
With Apple's market cap around $3.6 trillion, if Wayne had held onto his share, he'd be one of the wealthiest people on the planet.
You'd think missing out on an eye-watering amount of cash would lead to some regret, but not for Wayne.
"I haven’t enough fingers and toes to count the number of times over the years that people have asked me [in pitying tones] if I’d ever regretted my decision," Wayne wrote in his 2011 memoir, as shared by PCMag. "I will state, here and now (but probably not for the last time) that I have never regretted my action."
Speaking to PCMag, the 91-year-old elaborated on his reasoning.
"Naturally, I would [want that]. However, I am also a realist. Circumstances evolve, and you go with the drift, you do the best you can with the circumstances you're in," Wayne noted. "I'm a pragmatic person and follow things according to events as they evolve."
When asked to clarify his regrets, he replied: "Regrets? It's difficult to say. Would I like to be a billionaire? Of course I would. But if you call that a regret or not, I don't know."