OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, recently forced its CEO Sam Altman out of the company, saying he "wasn't honest in his dealings with board members." This wreaked havoc across the tech industry worldwide. However, Altman joined Microsoft as head of the AI research project a few days after being fired from OpenAI. He managed to stay afloat and plans to continue working for AI at Satya Nadella's company. While it's a big mess in the tech world right now, it's not the first time a CEO has been fired. of his own company. Here are some well-known tech executives who accidentally got fired from their tech companies by their board members.
Steve Jobs, Apple, 1985
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and one of the most popular technology leaders, was fired from his company in 1985, less than 9 years after founding Apple. This was due to a disagreement between him and Apple's then CEO John Sculley, the CEO Jobs himself referred to. The Macintosh computer, one of Apple's most popular devices, had experienced poor sales, causing tension throughout the company. While Jobs believed that this was because they priced the device high enough, Sculley believed that Jobs was wasting resources by spending money on expensive products. The board sided with Sculley, which angered Jobs. Later, a dispute arose between the CEO and co-founder Jobs over the board's decision to select one to lead Apple. The board decided to fire Jobs, but years later in 1997, Jobs returned to the company, this time as CEO.
Elon Musk, PayPal, 2000
Tech billionaire Elon Musk was fired from money transfer company PayPal shortly after being named CEO. This was after he advised the company to diversify rather than stick to just one company. This caused widespread friction between board members. Due to differences over the company's direction and management style, Musk was fired from the company while he was on vacation in Australia. Musk was replaced by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in September 2000. This later gave Musk the motivation to build Tesla. and SpaceX.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter, 2008
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was fired as CEO in 2008. According to a report by The Verge, the board found Dorsey unfit to lead the company. He was unable to resolve the interrupting issue that caused the service to run continuously. It was further revealed that one of the reasons she was kicked out was because she left work early to attend fashion design and yoga classes. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said, “You can be a dressmaker or the CEO of Twitter. You can't be both." However, in 2015, he returned to lead Twitter and remained there until 2021, when he replaced Parag Agarwal as CEO.
Marissa Mayer, Yahoo, 2017
Marissa Mayer was appointed CEO of Yahoo in 2012, but was then pressured to resign in 2017. Reasons for his resignation were listed as slow growth and internal discord, which led to a breakdown in employee morale. During his tenure at Yahoo, a large number of security breaches were also reported that compromised the data of millions of customers. Paraphrase in plain language.
