November 13, 1997: Jobs Won’t Be Apple CEO

Larry Ellison has been, or is, a lot of things. Founder of Oracle, Silicon Valley billionaire, Steve Jobs’s best friend, and someone who talked about buying out Apple.

Ellison was also, for a time, an Apple board member. Since his tenure included the CEO search, Ellison took it upon himself to be the public voice of Apple's board. Ellison's message was, consistently, that Steve would not be Apple's next CEO.

A particularly good example of Ellison's public pronouncements:
"We've got someone we like very much, although I can't tell you who it is."
This was followed by:

"I'm almost positive he's not (staying on). I think he'll serve as acting CEO until we find the right person. I think he wants to focus on Pixar and his kids."

Ellison, wrongly, dashed the hopes of those who wanted Steve Jobs as Apple's CEO this day in 1997.