Apple Inc. and Corporate Performance

Apple Inc. and Corporate Performance

Sheree Price

Bus. 650:  Managerial Finance

Dr. Keith Wade

June 20, 2016

        Apple Inc.'s famous leader, Steve Jobs argued, "What is Apple, after all? Apple is about people who think ‘outside the box,’ people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done" (Russell, n.d.). Revolutionary thinking exhibited by Steve Jobs and others has led Apple Inc. to become a leader in the computer and electronics' industry. Not only does Apple Inc. display a stellar reputation but its' organization has dominated in technological advances. In addition to technological greatness, the company leads the industry financially. Reviewing, utilizing and analyzing pro forma financial statements, ratio analysis, looking at return on equity, assessing management performance by calculating economic value added, and evaluating financial policies are necessary in evaluating corporate performance. An evaluation of corporate performance will illustrate why Apple Inc. has been a leader in its industry for many years, outperforming all companies in 2015 with revenues of $199.4 billion.

History of Apple Inc.

        Apple Inc launches a variety of types of technology from cell phones to computer as well as a variety of musical devices. College dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computers Incorporated on April 1, 1976. Another friend, Ronald Wayne was also involved but he sold his part out for five hundred dollars, twelve days after the three started the company. The two Steve's built the Apple I in Job's garage and actually sold them without a casing, keyboard or a monitor. Terrell (2008), states that "The Apple II revolutionized the computer industry with the introduction of the first-ever color graphics and sales jumped from 7.8 million in 1978 to $117 million in 1980, the year Apple went public" (p.1).  Wozniak lost interest in the running of Apple Computers and left the company in 1983. John Sculley later became president but Jobs was not pleased, so he left Apple and started another company called NeXT Software. Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas which became a big success in computer animation, producing movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc., to name a few. Apple continued to grow under the leadership of Sculley and in 1990 posted its highest profits to date. Many credit Sculley's success to following the directions Jobs had set in place before his departure (Terrell, 2008). One of the most successful was his plans to join with a small company named Adobe. Together the two companies created the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), which led to the creation of something known as desktop publishing. After its peak in the 1990's, Apple shares began to drop and many thought the company was going to fold. Apple was in desperate need of an operating system so it bought Jobs Company, NeXT Software, in 1997 (Terrell, 2008).  The board of Apple asked for Jobs help and he officially became the CEO in 2000. Under Jobs leadership, he forged an alliance with Microsoft to create a Mac version of its office software; he introduced the iBook, branched into the music world creating iPod and iTunes, in addition Apple created the iPhone (Terrell, 2008).  Fortune named Apple the most loved company in the United States in 2008 and the most loved company in the world in 2009(Fortune, 2010).   For reasons as numerous as its philosophy of comprehensive aesthetic style to its distinctive advertising campaigns, Apple has established a singular name within the technology industry.