02-15-2008, 02:55 AM
I actually read Gil's book, the one about his time at Apple. I enjoyed it. GREAT anecdotes, some laugh-out-loud moments. And he did an entertaining job of defending his tenure there. He got an unfair rap for some things. His boldest act, without a doubt, was the Debentures maneuver, a spectacular financing effort to save Apple when it was nearly completely out of cash. He essentially pulled off, in one mass conference call, a fundraising deal that usually takes weeks of flying around the U.S. meeting with investors. Jobs even credited that move with saving Apple during it's most critical time financially. Gil had do to a lot of ugly dirty work (firing the crooks inside Apple, for example) the kind of stuff that isn't glamorous at all.
Gil naturally presented his side of the story, and took a few shots at Jobs, so you have to view it in context, it's his subjective account. He didn't do nearly the damage to Apple that his predecessors did. He paved the way for Jobs return to Apple. He was all right.
Gil naturally presented his side of the story, and took a few shots at Jobs, so you have to view it in context, it's his subjective account. He didn't do nearly the damage to Apple that his predecessors did. He paved the way for Jobs return to Apple. He was all right.