Steve Jobs would have already been worth a significant fraction of Bill Gates if he wasn’t so dumb about Apple stocks. According to the Bret Arends calculations, Steve Jobs would have $4 billion extra if he hadn’t exchanged his stock options in early 2003. Apple shares at that time were trading at $7.50. After having spent the years preceding turning Apple around spearheading the creation of the iMac, iPod, and, perhaps, most importantly, supplying Apple with a new operating system NeXTSTEP, now known as Mac OS, Steves has nothing to show for in terms of monetary rewards except an airplane worth $90 million and a bunch of Apple stock options in the post-bubble period.
Here’s the math:
Steve Jobs had: 15 million options at $9.15 strike price and another 40 million at $21.80
Apple stock price at the time: $7.50
Steve Jobs Exchanged 55 million options for 10 million actual shares worth $7.50 each
Apple stock price now + 55 million Apple shares : $5.6 Billion
Steve Jobs Apple stocks now: $1.2 Billion
Steve Jobs Lost $5.6 – $1.2 = 4.4 Billion
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