Oracle founder Larry Ellison once formulated a dramatic plan to orchestrate a hostile takeover of Apple and depose its chief executive, only to be firmly shut down by his close friend Steve Jobs. During Apple’s tumultuous financial period in the late 1990s, Ellison proposed raising $3 billion to buy the struggling tech company, place Jobs back at the helm, and immediately remove the existing leadership. However, Jobs completely halted the plan, famously declaring that he did not want to make money that way and telling Ellison that if he were to return to Apple, it would be on his own terms through an acquisition of his software company, NeXT. Jobs believed that maintaining his moral high ground and pursuing a traditional restructuring path was vital to saving the company’s legacy. Ellison eventually relented, and Jobs successfully engineered his legendary return to Apple shortly thereafter, transforming it into the multi-trillion-dollar tech empire it is today without the need for a corporate raid.
