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Jobs Claims No Bitterness Toward Sculley : Says Realization He Wasn’t Wanted a Shock

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Associated Press

Apple Computer co-founder Steven P. Jobs says he feels no bitterness toward the man who ousted him from the company--John Sculley, who Jobs picked to be president of the firm.

Jobs, 30, who resigned as chairman of the board last Tuesday, was relieved of operating duties in May, he said in an interview in the Sept. 30 issue of Newsweek magazine.

Jobs said he learned that he was no longer wanted at the company at two separate analysts meetings in which Sculley said there was “no role for me there, then or in the future. That was about as black-and-white as you need to make things.”

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Punch in the Stomach

He said he felt as if somebody had “punched you in the stomach and it knocks the wind out of you and you can’t breathe.”

But he added, “You know, I respect his (Sculley’s) right to make that decision.”

Jobs and Stephen Wozniak founded the $2-billion company in a garage 10 years in California’s Silicon Valley.

Wozniak left Apple in February in a disagreement with Jobs over the firm’s priorities.

Apple, which at one point had a 45% share of the personal computer market, now has less than 30%.

It suffered its first loss in its last fiscal quarter.

Concession to Sculley

Jobs conceded that he might not be the best person to run a company.

“It probably is true that the people who have been able to come up with the innovations in many industries are maybe not the people that either are the best skilled at, or, frankly, enjoy running a large enterprise.”

Last week, Sculley, 46, said, “People tend to confuse vision with innovation. . . . Steve contributed to vision, and it’s an immense contribution, no doubt about it.”

The firm improved and then declined under Sculley’s leadership. He has begun a reorganization and expects the company to make a profit in the current quarter.

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Jobs said he thought Sculley wanted him to sever any relationship with Apple because “John felt that, after the reorganization, it was important for me to not be at Apple for him to accomplish what he wanted to accomplish.”

He said he had only spoken to Sculley three times since May but would “answer the phone” if he called.

Jobs told Newsweek that he was proud of what he had accomplished in the last 10 years and that “I’d like to do something again where when I’m 40 will look back and say, ‘You know, I spent my 30s well.’ ”

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