Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011 after famously bringing the company he co-founded back from the dead and making it a global juggernaut. Under Jobs’ second turn at the top of Apple, the stock price rose 9,000%. Months before Jobs died, CEO Tim Cook took over Apple amidst massive concern that Apple could only be led by Jobs — that it was Jobs’ singular brand of genius and determination that made Apple successful. Many on Wall Street — and Apple customers as well — feared that Jobs just couldn’t be replaced. On October 5, 2011, Apple’s stock price was $377.77.
Apple stock split 7 for 1 on June 8, 2014 — making the price at the time of Jobs’ death, in adjusted share value, essentially $53.97. Now almost exactly four years after Jobs’ death, on October 29, 2015, the adjusted Apple stock hit $120. That’s a rise of 122 percent. No one is irreplaceable. Not even an iconoclast like Steve Jobs.