Recently the co-founder Oracle, Larry Ellison, gave a speech in front of the students of an American university, and in it he narrated one of the lesser-known moments of the relationship he had with Steve Jobs since the time when the co-founder Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), was running NeXT.
Jobs and Ellison used to go hiking through a natural park near Silicon Valley, and during one of the walks, Jobs brought up the idea of saving the Apple company, which at that time was close to bankruptcy.
Elisson proposed a plan to buy the Apple company, which was then worth about 5 billion dollars, but Steve Jobs he had something else in mind, he wanted Apple to buy NeXT and for him to initially be part of the board of directors, and then to become CEO.
Ellison was still interested in making money from this plan, and asking Steve Jobs how they would make money if they didn't buy Apple, the Apple co-founder told him that he wasn't doing everything for money, but to prove to those running the company that removing him was a bad decision.
From here on, you all know what happened, Jobs choosing to use Bill Gates to save Apple, the company now being the most valuable on the planet.
My idea was simple, buy Apple, and immediately make Steve CEO. Apple wasn't worth much back then, about $5 billion dollars. We both had really good credit and I had already arranged to borrow all of the money. All Steve had to do was say yes.
Steve proposed a somewhat more circuitous approach. First, persuade Apple to buy NeXT computer, then Steve would join Apple's board and over time the board would recognize that Steve was the right guy to lead the company.
I said, 'Ok, that might work, but Steve if we don't buy Apple how are we going to make any money.' Suddenly, Steve stopped walking and turned towards me. We were facing each other when he put his left hand on my right shoulder and his right hand on my left shoulder. Staring unblinking into my eyes, Steve said, 'Larry, this is why it's so important that I'm your friend. You don't need any more money.' I said, 'Yeah, I know, I know.' Then I said, 'but we don't have to keep it. We could give it all away.' I was whining.
Steve just shook his head and said, 'I'm not doing this for the money. I don't want to get paid. If I do this, I need to do this standing on the moral high ground.'
