Steven Jobs - Jobs Separates From Apple, 1985-1995

JOBS SEPARATES FROM APPLE (1985-1995)

Jobs and Wozniak both left Apple in 1985 after Jobs hired John Sculley from PepsiCo to run the company. Jobs immediately started a new computer company, NeXT Computer Inc. At first NeXT built computers for colleges and universities. After the computers failed to become big sellers, the company turned to creating software. It developed an operating system, NextStep, which was soon overshadowed by Microsoft's Windows.

While continuing to run NeXT, Jobs became involved in another business. In 1986 he bought the special effects division of George Lucas's LucasFilm Ltd. for $10 million and renamed it Pixar. Under Jobs Pixar made workstations and software to enhance digital images. One of its notable software products was called RenderMan. It enabled computer graphic artists to add textures and color onto three-dimensional objects. One of the applications of RenderMan was to create the realistic skin and teeth on the dinosaurs in the 1993 film, Jurassic Park.

Another division of Pixar was involved in making short animated films. Although these films were designed to showcase Pixar's software, they began winning awards. The films were made under the direction of John Lasseter, who joined Pixar when it was a division of LucasFilm. In the early 1990's Lasseter and his colleagues teamed up with Walt Disney Co. to work on full-length animated feature films. Pixar developed a new way to create three-dimensional animation for use in film sequences, videos, CD-ROM games, and other applications.

Following the release of its first animated feature, Toy Story, in 1995, Pixar became financially successful. The company went public and followed up with two more hits, A Bug's Life in 1998 and Toy Story 2 in 1999. Following these successes, Jobs' share of the company was worth more than $1 billion.