Ron Wayne was one of the original founders of Apple. Jobs gave him a ten percent stake, which would have been worth several tens of billions of dollars today had he hung on to it. But at 40 years of age and feeling he had a tiger by the tail in Jobs and Wozniak, and also not wanting to be responsible financially for whatever they did, he sold his stock back to them for, according to Wiki, $2300. Lately he’s been living in a trailer near Las Vegas, his only income from Social Security and whatever he can make from his longtime hobby of trading coins. But now, according to this article it looks like he’s made a nice piece of change by auctioning off the original document which formally made Apple a company. Even after taxes and Sotheby’s commission he ought to be well set, with the document selling for $1.6 million dollars. Hopefully, at age 77, he still has enough time left to enjoy it.
Wayne has been honest and up front about what happened and made sure everyone knew that Jobs and Wozniak hadn’t screwed him out of his stock. The decision was his alone and he’s been content to live with the consequences. So, even though he wasn’t instrumental in building Apple into what it is today, it’s good to see him get a nice piece of change as the result of his early efforts with the company.
I didn’t really expect much in the way of responses anyway though. Not many people know of Ron Wayne in the first place, and there wouldn’t be much for them to say other than “Yeah, I’m glad he got it too.”
I believe Wayne was instrumental in getting Woz to quit HP and start Apple, so without him Apple as we know it wouldn’t exist today. So it’s fantastic that he’s finally getting something out of it.
I’m missing something. Wouldn’t the extent of his exposure if the Steves screwed the pooch and Apple went under have been limited to simply using the stock for wallpaper?
Meh. I don’t see any reason to be glad if this guy got Apple-related dough. He chose to sell out early because he apparently thought it was the best thing for him to do at the time. Countless investors sell stock to later see it greatly increase in value. So, meh, whatever, nothing interesting to see here.
Reading more on the Wikipedia page, this guy sold his 10% stake in Apple after two weeks. The only reason anyone knows his name is because Apple users are fanatical crazies who have to know everything about their computer supplier of choice.
Actually, I believe he’s most well known for being the guy who gave up a 10% stake in Apple for $2,300. Had he simply signed on as an executive and bailed after a couple of weeks, then it’s unlikely anyone other than Apple fanatics would have heard of him. But as it is he’s been profiled periodically over the years in mainstream magazines and on television news programs, with the result that a certian number of people besides Apple fanboys have become aware of him.
Having said that, however, isn’t it rather obvious from the detail included in the OP that I expected most people not to know much about him? I really don’t see what difference it makes what circles he’s known or not known in…or why.
That’s my point. Why does anyone know his name at all? The ink on the partnership agreement was still wet when he sold his share. Apple didn’t even start selling anything until three months after he quit and Wayne himself admits he was just there so that at least one of them looked like an adult.
It seems like every successful Silicon Valley startup has a story like this. Someone sells their stock for peanuts, someone turns down stock options in favor of higher pay, someone signs away their rights to a product, and on it goes. So this might just be another of those bad decision stories, except for this line from your link:
So even after making one big mistake, he is given a second chance at success and screws that up too. Sad and amusing in a cruel way.
But who am I to criticize? I failed to purchase stock in thousands of companies which increased greatly in value during my lifetime. I failed to stockpile gold at $100 an ounce (I didn’t have any money when it was fixed at $35 an ounce). I could have purchased real estate that doubled in value in 3 years, and then sold it before the bubble burst. I could have picked the winning numbers for numerous lotteries. These weren’t singular opportunities, but that’s really the only difference between anyone’s failure to presciently cash in on speculation, and his.
