On September 17, 1985, after a conflict with the chief executive John Sculley, Steve Jobs submitted his resignation to Apple’s board. In December 1996 Apple agreed to buy his company, NeXT, for $400 million. On September 16, 1997, Jobs was named interim chief executive of Apple.
In 1998 Apple introduced the iMac. In 2000 Jobs dropped the word interim from his title.