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Nolan Bushnell was arguably one of the first consumer tech rock stars. He co-founded Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, and in one of the all time blunders of world fin

Nolan Bushnell was arguably one of the first consumer tech rock stars. He co-founded Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, and in one of the all time blunders of world financial history, turned down a offer to buy a 33% stake in Apple for $50K (about $260K today).

pests 5y ago
That's a big enough stake to alter the future direction of Apple. It might not have grew into what it is today with him owning so much back when they were beginning.
- mongol 5y ago
  For sure. I think it it is almost inevitable that the trajectory would have been different in that case. For that share he would have had a board position. Would Sculley have become CEO under those circumstances? Impossible to know but if he would not, then the entire history would have played out differently.
helsinkiandrew 5y ago
> turned down a offer to buy a 33% stake in Apple for $50K (about $260K today). Isn’t that $260k off by a few of orders of magnitude?
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  I think the OP meant that 50K of dollars then are, after inflation, worth about 260K dollars now. Not that a third of equity in Apple is worth 260K.
  - tgflynn 5y ago
    That would be using a very high inflation rate since 1980 (around when I assume this must have happened). I think the official factor is closer to 3x than 5x.
    - helsinkiandrew 5y ago
      If it was a little earlier than 1980 it might be more realistic - inflation didn’t go below 6% between 1975 and 1983 and was often into double digits at that time https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-inflation https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-inflation
  - helsinkiandrew 5y ago
    That makes more sense - it's just a coincidence that the market cap of Apple is is now almost exactly 10^7 times larger than $260K
masswerk 5y ago
Also, he sold Atari (to Time Warner) in order to finance the development and roll-out of the Atari VCS (AKA Atari 2600). – He sacrificed the company for its product becoming reality.

pests 5y ago

That's a big enough stake to alter the future direction of Apple. It might not have grew into what it is today with him owning so much back when they were beginning.

mongol 5y ago
For sure. I think it it is almost inevitable that the trajectory would have been different in that case. For that share he would have had a board position. Would Sculley have become CEO under those circumstances? Impossible to know but if he would not, then the entire history would have played out differently.

helsinkiandrew 5y ago

> turned down a offer to buy a 33% stake in Apple for $50K (about $260K today). Isn’t that $260k off by a few of orders of magnitude?

inglor_cz 5y ago
I think the OP meant that 50K of dollars then are, after inflation, worth about 260K dollars now. Not that a third of equity in Apple is worth 260K.
- tgflynn 5y ago
  That would be using a very high inflation rate since 1980 (around when I assume this must have happened). I think the official factor is closer to 3x than 5x.
  - helsinkiandrew 5y ago
    If it was a little earlier than 1980 it might be more realistic - inflation didn’t go below 6% between 1975 and 1983 and was often into double digits at that time https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-inflation https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-inflation
- helsinkiandrew 5y ago
  That makes more sense - it's just a coincidence that the market cap of Apple is is now almost exactly 10^7 times larger than $260K

masswerk 5y ago

Also, he sold Atari (to Time Warner) in order to finance the development and roll-out of the Atari VCS (AKA Atari 2600). – He sacrificed the company for its product becoming reality.