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back to article Apple's founding contracts sold for $1.59 MILLION

Apple's founding documents have sold for ten times their estimated price at a Sotheby's auction, fetching $1.59 million. The contract establishing the corporation, along with further paperwork removing one of the three original founders, were expected to go for around $150,000, but were snapped up by Eduardo Cisneros, CEO of …

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  1. Havin_it
    Trollface

    "very happy to own a piece of American (World) history"

    Ah, but does he own it, or is he simply granted a conditional license to read it now and again? Hope he checked the fine print.

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    1. Thomas 18
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Apple reserves the right

      to read 30% of the contact as and when they see fit.

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  2. jai

    bad luck

    so not only did he sell out of the company early and so give up what would now be 2 billion dollars, he also sold the documents in '94 and so missed out on making 1.5 million if he'd sold them today.

    that guy has had a really long run of bad fortune. dude is either due a lottery win, or did something so terrible that karma has spent all his life screwing with him.

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    1. Pete Foster
      Reply Icon

      He doesn't care

      Read Ron Wayne's book. He's one of the most humble people you will encounter.

      He really doesn't care about the money.

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    2. Keep Refrigerated
      Reply Icon

      Or just risk averse and/or bad at making financial decisions. I don't see how luck comes into it.

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  3. MacGyver
    Trollface

    Poor guy.

    Ron Wayne, not a lucky guy, but a lot stronger than most people would have been. I bet he has a tattoo that says "Hindsight is 20/20, now piss off"

    As far as the auction goes, it looks like two or more filthy rich people throwing money away so that they can claim to be "Owner of some spiffy Apple paperwork." Someone just give them a hug already, and tell them they're special. Repeat after me Eduardo, "I'm a winner, I'm a winner!" Now just keep telling yourself that.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When you make a decision like Ron Wayne made you must have to console yourself with, "Well it was great to just simply be involved in the whole thing!"

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  5. Chris Glen-smith
    Facepalm

    oops!

    Ron Wayne : "Doh!"

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  6. LPF

    Dang!!

    Ron Wayne ...Dude..... :(

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  7. Days-Of-Wild
    WTF?

    Crisis?

    What crisis?

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A lot more than 2 billion

    10% of Apple would be worth 36 billion today.

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    1. jonathanb Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      10% of Apple then would be less than 10% of Apple now due to dilution from later funding rounds.

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  9. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
    Trollface

    Wow

    $1.59M for a piece of paper that is, essentially, worthless. The jokes about fanbois just write themselves.

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  10. LarsG

    AT EVERY AUCTION......

    There is an idiot.

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  11. Alex Rose

    What am I missing

    "His ten per cent stake in the company would today be worth around $2 billion."

    Surely that values Apple at $20 billion. Can someone with a better grasp of business clue me up as to why his stake wouldn't be worth more like $20 billion?

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    1. jonathanb Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Because things like later funding rounds and stock options to staff and directors would mean that he no longer owned 10% of the company.

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He lost out on rather more than $2bn...

    Apple's market cap today is $354bn, so he actually lost out on something like $35 billion...

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  13. GoingGoingGone
    Happy

    Imperialism Crusade

    So a subject of the fiercely anti-US Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is paying an inordinate amount of money to own what could be the ultimate symbol of American capitalism. Take that up Mr Chavez.

    Or on second thoughts, just nationalize the Cisneros group and use the paper to light up a pair of good cigars with your Cuban chum Sr Castro. That would be a good one.

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  14. kain preacher

    Or he is just a bad business man . They say Karma is a bitch, but I think she is a prize fighter . She enjoys kicking ass.

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  15. dssf

    $2B or NOT $2B? (THAT is the Que$tion...)

    Here:

    http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/06/apple-co-founder-ron-waynes-long-strange-and-sad-trip/

    It says $*22* Billion...

    "We don’t hear much about Ron Wayne, one of the three founders of Apple Computer in 1976. That might be because he gave back a stake that would be worth $22 billion today a mere 12 days after he got it from his partners, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak."

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  16. Dig

    perhaps the shares have been diluted over time so what was 10% back then is now only 1%.

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