The Cleveland, Ohio born Ronald Wayne who co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976, sold his 10% stake in the company for a mere $800.
On the 1st of April in 1976, Ronald Wayne partnered with Wozniak and Jobs and provided administrative oversight and documentation for the new venture. Jobs owned 65.4% of the newly registered Apple Computer Company, Wozniak owned 34.6%, and Wayne owned the remaining 10%.
Despite the drawn up paperwork for the company and producing the original logo and some early designs, Wayne got cold feet about being a partner. He sold his 10% stake in the newly formed Apple back to Jobs and Wozniak for US$800.
A year later, Ronald accepted a final US$1,500 to forfeit any potential future claims against the newly incorporated Apple. Had he held on to his 10% stake in Apple, it would have been worth around $270 billion based on Apple’s current market cap of $2.71 trillion.
For some people, Wayne’s decision would be seen unwise in the business world, but he has no regrets for walking out of Apple. The businessman originally believed that Apple would be successful, but at the same time, there would be significant bumps along the way, which he was not prepared to risk.
Ronald Wayne has also been more interested in slot machines, as he described as his passion, which was not even a consideration for Jobs and Wozniak. “The last thing I wanted to do was spend the next 20 years of my life shuffling papers in a large backroom office,” he revealed.
He added that he had already had a rather unfortunate business experience before.
