The return of Jobs
Apple cut operating costs and reestablished quality
controls, but by that time only a small percentage of
new computer buyers were choosing Macs over
machines running Windows, and Apple's financial
situation was dire. In December 1996, in order to secure
a replacement for the Mac's aging operating system
following the collapse of CHRP and the company's
protracted inability to produce one internally, Apple
purchased NeXT Software, Inc., the company formed by
Jobs after his 1985 departure. Jobs himself was retained
as an advisor to the CEO, but he quickly became
disenchanted and sold all but one share of the Apple
stock he had received in the NeXT sale. When Apple
failed to become profitable under Amelio and its
worldwide market share fell to roughly 3 percent, the
board of directors, in mid-1997, recruited a surprising
temporary replacement: Jobs, for the first time the
undisputed leader of the company he cofounded.
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