... in 1976 and grew to a publicly traded company by 1980. In 1980, the decision to go public was made and an IPO of 4.6 million shares was sold within minutes, making Apple the largest public offering since Ford Motor Company went public in 1956. Apple continued to experience early success in the industry being the first computer company to reach $1 billion in annual sales in 1982. One year later, it entered the Fortune 500 at number 441. Apple continued its strong market position by introducing a graphic user interface that became known as a "window" that later became the industry standard. They were far ahead of their competition in providing a user friendly computer interface system. Apple computers were also beating the competition in data processing capability and speed. These factors contributed greatly to Apple's early success. However, Apple's performance began to sliding, leaving the company perilously close ...

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