American businessman Mike Markkula is most known for his work as an angel investor and the second CEO of Apple Computer, Inc.
Mike Markkula Net Worth
Mike Markkula’s net worth is $1.2 billion as of this writing. Mike gave Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak the money they needed to form a business and produce the Apple II computer in large quantities. Apple is currently worth more than $2.5 trillion.
Mike Markkula held the record for the longest tenure on the board in the organization’s history, having served for 20 years, from 1977 to 1997. Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy when he departed the company, having lost $1.7 billion over the previous four years.
Mike was the company’s main bug-finder and product tester, and he authored a number of early Apple II programs. In a memorable boardroom argument that led to Steve Job leaving Apple in 1985, Mike supported John Sculley, Apple’s second CEO.
Mike had several million Apple shares (before splits) and was the company’s greatest individual shareholder for many years up to the mid-1990s. Prince Al Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia later surpassed him to become the company’s largest shareholder; he retained that position for a while. Board Chairman Art Levinson, who currently holds 1.14 million shares of Apple, is the company’s largest shareholder.
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Investment In Apple By Mike Markkula
Jobs established Apple in 1976 alongside his buddies Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Two weeks later, Wayne was fired. Investor in startups. Don Valentine, a venture capitalist who had declined to invest in Apple, introduced Mike to Jobs in 1977. Markkula became the Apple II’s first significant angel investor after Jobs persuaded him of the product’s huge economic potential.
Mike would provide Apple a total of $250,000 in investments: $170,000 in loans and $80,000 in equity. Mike officially became employee #3 and a third owner of Apple as a result of the investment.
Mike first saw Apple as a short-term side project. He even went so far as to promise his wife that he would work at the start-up for no longer than four years. He ended up spending almost two decades at the company.
Mike Markkula’s Real Estate and Other Investments
Mike Markkula formally left Apple in 1997 after Jobs’s return. He also made investments in a number of other businesses, most notably Crowd Technologies and LiveCode, Ltd.
In Carmel Valley, California, Mike and his wife Linda paid $8 million bought the enormous 14,000 square foot ranch known as Rana Creek Ranch. That is equivalent to investing roughly $20 million in today’s money. A 5,400 square foot main home and many guest houses are on the site.
It has a 3,000-foot landing strip, helipad, active cow ranch, equestrian arena, and private lake. They put the house up for sale for $60 million in 2013. In 2016, the cost was reduced to $45 million, and in 2020, it was reduced to $37 million.
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