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- Jobs Returns To Apple, Elon Returns To PayPal, and the "Flying Hamburger"
Jobs Returns To Apple, Elon Returns To PayPal, and the "Flying Hamburger"
David Prince
February 21, 2025
In partnership with
Welcome back, Ticker Historians.
Oh, you’ve got President’s Day off?
Can’t relate.
We’re in the trenches. Grinding. Unbothered. Happy. In our lane. Focused. Flourishing.
As always, stay bullish.
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Who Says You Can’t Go Home? 📅
Last week, Elon Musk offered to buy OpenAI from CEO Sam Altman for $97.4 billion. Altman declined the offer, joking (possibly) that he’d rather buy Twitter from Musk for $9.74 billion.
In 2015, Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit, though Musk left over disagreements over the direction of the company and funding sources. He founded a competing startup, xAI, in 2023.
A founder or CEO leaving a company only to return later? It’s not as rare as you think. Let’s take a look.
Steve Jobs and Apple  | Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, but was forced out in 1985 over a power struggle with the board. Jobs would go on to found NeXT, a competing computer business. In 1997, Apple acquired NeXT for $439 million, bringing Jobs back to the company as an advisor. He would become CEO later that year. |
Mark Rampolla and Zico  | Mark Rampolla, who founded Zico Coconut Water in 2004, sold it to Coca-Cola in 2013 for $200 million. In 2021, after Coca-Cola discontinued Zico, he bought it back for less than half of the price he sold it for. |
Howard Schultz and Starbucks  | Howard Schultz was chairman and CEO of Starbucks for three separate stints: 1986 to 2000, 2008 to 2017, and 2022 to 2023. During his absences, Starbucks saw declining revenues and had corporate cultural issues. Schultz was called in to fix the mess. |
Bob Iger and Disney  | Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, transforming the brand with acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, while also launching Disney+ in 2019. He stepped down in 2020, leaving Bob Chapek as his successor. Chapek struggled to navigate Disney through COVID and a contentious political landscape, and was removed in 2022. Iger returned to lead Disney again. |
Not Elon’s first time doing business with a company he left…
Elon Musk and PayPal  | In October 2000, Elon Musk was ousted as CEO of x.com, which later became PayPal, due to disagreements over which back-end system to use (Musk preferred Windows, his co-founders liked Unix). |
This Week In Ticker History 📅
February 23, 2011 Apple introduces the new MacBook Pro as the first computer to use Thunderbolt data transfer technology. The Thunderbolt 1 portal offered speeds up to 10 Gbps, twice as fast as USB 3.0, allowing for faster file transfers and higher-resolution external displays. |  |
February 17, 1934 Europe’s first-ever high speed train runs between Berlin and Hamburg in 2 hours and 18 minutes. Named the “Fliegender Hamburger” (Flying Hamburger), it reached a top speed of 99 mph on its journey. While high speed rail today runs at speeds over double this, this was a huge moment for the beginning of Europe’s interconnected railways of today. |  |
February 21, 2011 Borders, the much-beloved bookstore of Millennial youth, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with $1.29 billion in debt and $1.27 billion in assets. The rise of e-books and online competition from Amazon marked the end of the bookstore’s 40 year run as owners liquidated all assets. |  |
February: The Month Of Bankruptcies 📅
It seems that February is a popular month for companies to declare bankruptcy.
Why might that be?
February is usually the month where public companies release their Q4 earnings from the previous year. For a retail business, this includes holiday sales, and if expectations aren’t met, it can be a dire sign of things to come- or a sign to close up shop.
Let’s look at some other companies that declared bankruptcy during the month of February.
Millennials in shambles.
Every Stock Has A Story 📅
In 1935, New York State had a major problem with its trains.
Railroad tracks ran across pedestrian streets, requiring cars to stop to let them pass. These intersections, called “railroad grades” lead to frequent accidents with cars and people, with an alarming number of fatalities.
The state government set out with an ambitious large-scale infrastructure project to remove all railroad grades, either by re-routing the trains or elevating tracks. Partially funded by President Roosevelt’s New Deal program, the state issued “Elimination of Railroad Grade Crossings” bonds to raise funds to pay for the project.
The project was successfully completed several years later, with accidents down substantially and increased efficiency for both cargo and passenger trains.
Other states followed suit, and being stopped at a railroad grade to wait for a passing train is now (almost entirely) a thing of the past.
Looking Forward 📅
That’s old news. What can we look forward to?
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is getting a re-release in theaters, and Captain America: Brave New World hopes to revive the Marvel brand.
Severance, a sci-fi show on Apple TV+ about office workers who have had their memories erased, returns for season two.
Meme stock Carvana releases earnings on Wednesday, with Walmart following up on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) report comes out, forecasting the direction of the economy for the next six months.
Stay safe, stay warm, and stay bullish. |
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