The Long, Extraordinary Career of Steve Jobs

Return to Apple
In Jobs' absence, Apple drifted and — at one point in the mid-1990s — flirted with bankruptcy. In 1996 the company announced that it would buy NeXT Computer for $429 million, thereby bringing Jobs back to the company he had co-founded. By 1998, a restless board gave him the title of interim CEO.

• The Beginning of a Post--Steve Jobs Era
• Do We Need the iPad?