In 1985, on this day the Head of the Macintosh Division Steve Jobs was relieved of managerial duties at a board meeting of Apple Inc.; he would leave the company five months later.

Bad for AppleAlthough respected as a persuasive and charismatic leader, he had invited criticism for being an erratic and temperamental executive, notorious for keeping meetings running past midnight, sending out lengthy faxes and then calling new meetings at 7:00 am. The perception of ill discipine reinforced by poor standards of personal hygiene when combined with a series of bungled technical and marketing decisions was enough to convince President John Sculley that he was "bad for apple".

Of course the bigger picture was disappointing sales volumes; Sculley and Jobs blamed each other, concluding that neither man was right to lead the company. Matters came to a head when Sculley learnt that Jobs had been attempting to organize a boardroom coup and he called the fateful directors meeting to resolve the matter.

A year later, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for the price of $10 million. An unintended consequence of the purchase was the building of a life-long relationship with George Lucas that would eventually change his whole outlook towards the American working man.
This article is part of the Blue Collar Fightback thread.