Apple offered $5 million for Adobe. Its two founders said no.
In 1982, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke were researchers at Xerox. With four colleagues they had written a printing language called Interpress, and Xerox management approved it. Then came the catch: they could not publish it until Xerox shipped its first Interpress printer, which was expected to take seven years.
They resigned in November 1982 and named their company after the creek behind their homes in Los Altos. The plan was to sell their own publishing computers and laser printers.
The next year Apple needed a laser printer for the Macintosh and offered $5 million for the whole company. "We were too early in our development to know what we had," the founders wrote in their 2019 history of Adobe. Their chairman told them that when someone offers you money for something else, that is what your business will become. Here, the something else was software. Apple put in $1 million for 20% instead. Adobe licensed PostScript, its new printing language, to printer makers rather than building machines.
Adobe reported $23.77 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025.
If you run software projects: the plan you raise money on is often not what your first big customer pays for.
One-minute true story. AI-generated illustration with narration by an AI voice.
What did your first big customer turn your plan into?
What the captions say
- This is the story of how Adobe's founders turned down $5 million from Apple. In fiscal 2025, Adobe's sales reached almost $24 billion.
- In 1982, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke were researchers at Xerox.
- With four colleagues, they wrote Interpress, a printing language. Xerox approved it, but barred publishing it until its first Interpress printer shipped, expected in seven years.
- Seven years. Warnock told Geschke, "We can live in the world's greatest sandbox for the rest of our life, or we can do something about it."
- That fall, an investment bank promised $2.5 million. In November, they resigned.
- They named it Adobe, after the creek behind their homes, and planned to sell workstations and laser printers.
- About six months in, they printed the first PostScript page. It was one black square.
- The Macintosh, still unreleased, had only a low-quality dot-matrix printer. Apple wanted a laser printer, and offered $5 million for Adobe.
- The founders said no. In their words, "We were too early in our development to know what we had."
- Their chairman said when someone offers you money for something else, that is what your business will become.
- Instead, Apple invested $1 million for 20% and advanced royalties. Adobe would license PostScript, not build machines.
- In January 1985, Apple's LaserWriter arrived with PostScript inside. With PageMaker software and a Linotype typesetter, it helped start desktop publishing.
- Adobe took in $23.77 billion in fiscal 2025. Xerox's first Interpress printer was expected in seven years. Adobe went public within four.
