Steve Jobs’ First Apple Inc. (AAPL) Stock Certificate Now On Sale

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An Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock certificate which is thought to be the first one awarded to cofounder Steve Jobs and was later recovered from a trash heap is being sold by a rare documents and autograph dealer for $195,000. Silicon Beat reports that the certificate, which is now on sale at Moments in Time, appears to have been issued to Jobs sometime after Apple Inc. (AAPL) went public in 1980.

Notarized letter confirms authenticity

The Apple Inc. (AAPL) stock certificate in question carries a 1981 date perforated into it. Until 1985, the common stock certificate hung on Steve Jobs’ office wall in Cupertino, California, according to Moments in Time’s Gary Zimet.

According to Zimet, John Sculley, the then-CEO who was brought in to run the tech giant in 1983 and assisted in forcing Jobs out of the company, called for Jobs’ office to be cleared out shortly after the ouster in 1985. The stock certificate on sale now was dumped into the trash with other paraphernalia, but an employee saved the document and kept it with him for 31 years. The publication said the anonymous employee had given a notarized letter attesting to the authenticity of the document. There is little proof beyond the letter to verify Zimet’s story.

After many wrong steps that nearly bankrupted Apple Inc. (AAPL), Jobs was eventually brought back through the 1997 acquisition of NeXT. Jobs then started the development of a series of popular products like the iPad, iPhone, and iMac, helping the tech giant become the most valuable company in the world.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s artifacts, especially items related to Jobs, frequently sell for sky-high prices. A batch of documents that included an original founding document signed by Ronald Wayne, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak was sold for $1.6 million in 2011. Based on those sales, Zimet priced the stock certificate at $195,000, notes Apple Insider.

AAPL guilty of breaching iPhone ringtone patent

In other Apple Inc. (AAPL) news, the tech giant has been found guilty of patent infringement and is being ordered  to pay $3 million in damages. The iPhone maker infringed upon a patent from MobileMedia Ideas that covered the sound the iPhone makes when there is an incoming phone call, decided a jury in Delaware. MobileMedia Ideas is a holding company owned by Sony and Nokia.

The decision brings a close to a long-running case that started in 2010 and led to a first decision against the tech giant in 2012. Initially, MobileMedia claimed that the Cupertino-based firm had infringed on around 16 of its patents. For the first verdict, it reduced that number to four, covering call handling, call rejection, call alerts and the phone’s camera.

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