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Christie’s is preparing to auction off the original partnership contract that created the Apple Computer Company on April 1, 1976, valuing it in the region of $2-4 million.
The original three-page document served as the contract among Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne. The agreement established initial shares at 45% for Jobs, 45% for Wozniak, and 10% for Wayne.
Additional papers documenting Wayne’s withdrawal as a partner just 12 days after the company was formed are also included in the auction package. Wayne initially received $800 for his 10% share of the company, and later received an additional $1,500 payment.
Wayne later stated he withdrew because he knew the venture would be a “roller coaster” and that the high-stakes ride was not for him.
If Wayne’s original 10% stake had somehow remained untouched, it would be worth about $409 billion today based on Apple’s $4 trillion valuation. That’s only a playful comparison, mind, since decades of stock splits, new share issuances, and structural changes mean that early 10% slice has no realistic connection to Apple’s modern share count!
Christie’s will offer the founding contract and Wayne’s withdrawal agreement as a single lot on January 23, 2026.
In the early 1990s, Wayne sold the physical copy of the founding contract for $500. Apple’s founding corporate papers were last sold at auction by Sotheby’s in December 2011. That lot also included Wayne’s withdrawal, and it was sold to a private collector for nearly $1.6 million.
(Via Arirang TV.)
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