Steve Jobs, the man who gave the world Apple computers and iPods, is poised to take a seat of power in Walt Disney Company’s magic kingdom.
Apple-founder Jobs will get a spot on the Disney board of directors as part of a deal announced on Tuesday by Disney to buy Pixar Animation for $7,4-billion.
The San Francisco native is expected to also become the largest stockholder in Disney.
Jobs co-founded Academy-Award-winning Pixar in Emeryville, California, in 1986.
Pixar was created from a former Lucasfilm computer graphics unit that Jobs reportedly bought from movie-industry titan George Lucas for $10-million.
It became a scrappy, creative studio that produced box-office movie hits including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.
Jobs’ society-shaping legacy dates back to 1976, when he co-founded Apple Computer, which ”ignited the personal computer revolution” by the end of that decade, according to the company’s website.
Apple’s luster faded after Jobs left the company during the dot-com boom, but the company shined anew with its market-dominating iPod digital music players and iTunes online music store after Jobs returned as chief officer.
The sleek MP3 players have become a must-have personal accessory and sent Apple’s sales soaring.
Born on February 24, 1955 to a single mother, Jobs was put up for adoption when he was a week old, according to online biographical information.
He was adopted by a couple in Mountain View and his company profile described him growing up playing in orchards in what is now Silicon Valley.
While a high school student, Jobs went to lectures at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, California, and worked a summer job there with future Apple co-founder Stephen Wozniak.
Jobs dropped out of college after a single semester, and once credited a calligraphy class he took as the reason Macintosh computers were designed with multiple typefaces.
Jobs worked as a technician for video game pioneer Atari and attended a computer hobbyist club in a garage called ”Homebrew Computer Club” with Wozniak.
When he was 20, Jobs made a spiritual journey to India, returning with his head shaved and traditional garb from that nation.
Jobs was 21 years old and Wozniak was 26 when they founded Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’ family home in 1976.
Last year, Jobs annual salary was estimated at more than $401 000 annually, and his net worth at more than three billion dollars.
Jobs married in 1991 and the couple has three children. He also has a daughter from another relationship.
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs author Alan Deutschman reported that Jobs once dated Joan Baez.
In 2005, Jobs banned all books published by John Wiley and Sons from the Apple retail stores in response to their publishing an unauthorised biography. – AFP