Did you know that Apple Inc is the world’s most valuable company and the world’s largest technology company by revenue (totaling $274.5 billion)? In this article, you’ll learn more about Apple’s net worth, Apple’s shareholders, and how it all began.
Apple Inc
- Founded: April 1, 1976
- Founders: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne
- Industry: Computer software and hardware, online services, smartphones, etc.
- Net Worth: $2 Trillion
- CEO: Tim Cook
Apple Inc is an American multinational technology company that is famous for the manufacturing of smartphones, tablets, PC computer software and hardware, and online services. The company has its headquarters in Cupertino, California, United States of America.
Apple is into the manufacturing of a wide variety of products with distinctive features. They’re the maker of the popular iPhone smartphones, iPad tablets, Mac book laptops, Air pod wireless earbuds, Apple Watch smartwatch, iPod, Apple TV, and many more. Apple is the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor by unit sales and the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer.
Apple has over 25 manufacturing units in different countries and is considered as one of the Big Five American information technology companies, along with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.
Despite the prices of their products being on the high side, the company still enjoys good patronage and this has contributed to their success over the years.
How it Stated
Apple Computer Company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976. The company’s first product was Apple I, a computer designed and hand-built entirely by Wozniak. On January 3, 1977, Apple Computer was incorporated, however, without Ronald Wayne who had left and sold his shares back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800.
On April 16, 1977, the Apple II, also invented by Wozniak was introduced at the first West Coast Computer Faire. Three years later, the company introduced the Apple III in an attempt to compete with IBM in the business and corporate computing market.
In 1984, the company launched the Macintosh, the first personal computer to be sold without a programming language. This ushered in a successful era for Apple. However, the company’s success began to decline between 1991-1997. Apple’s products were sold heavily but they started facing problems related to services and cost of their products as compared to cheap Microsoft Windows PC which runs on intel. Steve Jobs had left the company to found NeXT, with several companies employees.
To save the company from bankruptcy, the newly hired CEO, Gil Amelio bought NeXT in 1997 and bring Steve Jobs back to Apple as an advisor.
On July 9, 1997, Amelio was ousted by the board of directors and Jobs took over as an interim CEO and began restructuring the company’s product line.
On January 9, 2007, Apple Computer, Inc. was changed to “Apple Inc.”, because the company had shifted its emphasis from computers to consumer electronics. The same year, the Apple iPhone and Apple TV made their debut. The Apple iPhone sold 270,00 units during the first 30 hours of sales. This was the game-changer for the industry and Apple. The company would go ahead to achieve widespread success with its iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad products.
How it is Going
Steve Jobs led Apple from the verge of bankruptcy to success with distinctive features and styles on their products. Following the wide acceptability of Apple’s iPhone, the company has been doing major upgrades and adding unique features for every newly released version.
The death of Steve Jobs in 2011 marked the end of an era for Apple Inc. Ever since then, the company has been under the leadership of the new CEO, Tim Cook.
Apple is currently enjoying the success of a lifetime by becoming the world’s most valuable company with a $2 trillion market cap. Apple has over 147,000 employees with over 500 retail shops worldwide. Interestingly, despite their products being expensive, they are still more than 1.5 billion Apple products used around the world.
Who Owns Apple?
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in April 1976, and went public in 1980. The company is a publicly held company owned by thousands and possibly millions of people. In fact, you can also be a part-owner of the company if you buy a share of Apple today.
However, there are people who are considered major shareholders. These people and are in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the company. Below are the top individual shareholders of Apple.
1. Art Levinson
Arthur (Art) Levinson is the highest individual shareholder of Apple. He is also the chairman of the board at Apple, and he’s held this role since 2011. Prior to taking over as Apple’s chairman, Art was the chairman and CEO at Genentech – a biotechnology company.
As of Dec. 28, 2020, Levinson owns 4,592,140 shares of Apple stock. As of the time of writing this report, the share price of Apple is $150, meaning that Levinson’s shareholding in Apple amounts to $688,821,000.
2. Tim Cook
Tim Cook is the second-highest individual shareholder of Apple. Cook is also the current CEO and former COO of Apple after taking over from Steve Jobs as CEO in 2011. Furthermore, COOK also serves on the board of Nike.
Cook currently holds 837,374 as of the time of writing. Using the price of $150 a share, this amounts to a shareholding worth $125,606,100. Just like other executives at Apple, Cook also has unused stock options and other employee stock benefits that he has not yet chosen to exercise.
3. Jeff Williams
Jeff Williams who is the current COO of Apple is among the highest shareholders. Williams directly reports to Tim Cook on Apple’s entire worldwide operations, and customer service and support. He is also in charge of Apple’s design team – a role which he took over following the departure of Jony Ive as a chief design officer.
Williams’s shareholding at the time of writing is 489,260. Using the current share price of $150 a share, the total value of his current stake in Apple is $73,389,000.
4. Al Gore
Al Gore who was the 45th Vice President of the United States is also one of the major shareholders. Gore joined the Apple board in 2003, three years after losing the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush – despite winning the popular vote.
Gore has a shareholding of 115,014 shares. At the time of writing, with a stock price of $150 a share, Gore had a shareholding in Apple worth $17,252,100.
5. Deirdre O’Brien
Deirdre O’Brien is the current senior vice president of retail and people at Apple. O’Brien also reports directly to Tim Cook. O’Brien has been working at Apple for over 30 years, and her team oversees talent development, recruitment, human relations, benefits, and compensation at Apple.
She has a shareholding of 33,854, Deirdre O’Brien holds Apple stock worth $5,078,700 as of the time of writing.
Below are the top three institutional shareholders of Apple. The three institutions own more than 5% of the company’s outstanding shares.
1. The Vanguard Group
The Vanguard Group is one of the largest institutional shareholders at Apple. The company which is led by Mortimer Buckley as chairman and CEO holds 1,239,382,735 shares of Apple.
2. BlackRock
Second on the list of BlackRock with $7.47 trillion in assets under management. The company is led by Larry Fink who is the CEO and chairman. Incidentally Susan Wagner – board member at Apple – is a founder, former director, and current board member at BlackRock Inc.
The company holds 1,055,005,602 shares of Apple stock at the time of writing.
3. Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Third on the list is Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The investment company is owned by renowned investor Warren Buffet, one of the world’s richest people. The company holds 887,135,554 shares of Apple at the time of writing this report.
Apple Net Worth
Apple Inc has an estimated net worth of $2 trillion. The company’s market cap is many countries’ GDP. According to Investopedia, Only 7 countries have annual GDP figures greater than Apple’s market cap.
Despite the high cost of its product, Apple still remains the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer. The company also has a wide range of products in the market.
Apple Products
Apple has a wide range of products that are dominating the market globally. Some of their products include;
- Macintosh
- iPod
- iPhone
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Apple TV
- HomePod
- Software and services
- Electric vehicles
Summary
Apple Inc is a renowned company with an estimated net worth of $2 trillion. Interestingly, Apple’s market value is higher than the GDP of numerous developed countries, including Italy, Brazil, Canada, Russia, and South Korea, to name a few.
Furthermore, the company offers employment to millions of people globally and had its retail stores around the world. The uniqueness of their products has made it gain wide acceptability despite its cost.
