After hearing the fury of his senior staff, Sculley surveyed the members of the board. They likewise felt that Jobs had misled them with his pledge that he would not raid important employees. Arthur Rock was especially angry. Even though he had sided with Sculley during the Memorial Day showdown, he had been able to repair his paternal relationship with Jobs. Just the week before, he had invited Jobs to bring his girlfriend up to San Francisco so that he and his wife could meet her, and the four had a nice dinner in Rock’s Pacific Heights home. Jobs had not mentioned the new company he was forming, so Rock felt betrayed when he heard about it from Sculley. “He came to the board and lied to us,” Rock growled later. “He told us he was thinking of forming a company when in fact he had already formed it. He said he was going to take a few middle-level people. It turned out to be five senior people.” Markkula, in his subdued way, was also offended. “He took some top executives he had secretly lined up before he left. That’s not the way you do things. It was ungentlemanly.”

在感受到高級職員的僨怒后，斯卡利開始征詢董事會的意見。他們同樣認為，喬布斯曾向他們保證自己不會帶走重要員工，如今看來，他誤導了他們。亞瑟·羅克尤其感到氣憤。雖然在美國陣亡將士紀念日的那次攤牌，羅克支持斯卡利，但是他已經修復了同喬布斯父子般的關系。就在一周前，他還邀請喬布斯帶女友蒂娜·萊德斯到舊金山去，讓自己和妻子見見她。四人在羅克位于太平洋髙地（PacificHeights）的家中吃了一頓愉快的晚餐，喬布斯當時并沒有告訴他自己正在組建新公司。因此，從斯卡利口中得知這一消息時，羅克覺得自己遭到了背叛。“他來到董事會，向我們撒謊。”羅克后來怒吼道，“他跟我們說他正考慮組建一家公司，而事實上他已經組建好了。他說準備帶走幾個中層職員，結果卻要帶走五位資深人士。”馬庫拉的反應雖然較為平和，但也覺得憤怒。“他在走之前就偷愉籠絡了一批高層管理人員，帶走了他們。做事不能這樣。這很下流。”

Over the weekend both the board and the executive staff convinced Sculley that Apple would have to declare war on its cofounder. Markkula issued a formal statement accusing Jobs of acting “in direct contradiction to his statements that he wouldn’t recruit any key Apple personnel for his company.” He added ominously, “We are evaluating what possible actions should be taken.” Campbell was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying he “was stunned and shocked” by Jobs’s behavior.

周末，董事會和髙級職員說服斯卡利，表示蘋果公司將向它的聯合創始人喬布斯宣戰。馬庫拉發表了一份正式聲明，指控喬布斯“直接違反了自己在董事會會議上的聲明，他曾表示不會在自己的公司中聘用任何重要的蘋果公司員工”。這份聲明還表示，“我們正在權衡應該采取哪些可能的措施”。《華爾街日報》援引比爾·坎貝爾的說法，他對喬布斯的行為“感到震驚”。該報還引用了另一位不愿具名的董事的話：“在我進行過商業合作的企業中，從來沒有見過人們如此憤怒。我們所有人都覺得他意圖欺騙我們。”

Jobs had left his meeting with Sculley thinking that things might proceed smoothly, so he had kept quiet. But after reading the newspapers, he felt that he had to respond. He phoned a few favored reporters and invited them to his home for private briefings the next day. Then he called Andy Cunningham, who had handled his publicity at Regis McKenna. “I went over to his unfurnished mansiony place in Woodside,” she recalled, “and I found him huddled in the kitchen with his five colleagues and a few reporters hanging outside on the lawn.” Jobs told her that he was going to do a full-fledged press conference and started spewing some of the derogatory things he was going to say. Cunningham was appalled. “This is going to reflect badly on you,” she told him. Finally he backed down. He decided that he would give the reporters a copy of the resignation letter and limit any on-the-record comments to a few bland statements.

同斯卡利會面后，喬布斯覺得事情可能會順利進行，于是他一直保持沉默。但在讀完《華爾街日報》的報道后，喬布斯覺得自己必須作出反應。他給自己偏愛的幾位記者打了電話，邀請他們第二天來自己家，私下通報一下情況。然后他又打給安德烈嫌·坎寧安，叫她來幫忙，坎寧安曾處理過喬布斯的宣傳事務。“我趕到他位于伍德賽德的空屋大宅，”她回憶說，“發現他和他的5個同事蜷縮在廚房里，而一些記者在外面的草坪上等著。”喬布斯告訴她說，自己準備開一個正式的新聞發布會，并把自己想說的一些貶損之辭統統告訴了她。坎寧安震驚了。“這會給你帶來負面影響。”她告訴喬布斯。最后，他讓步了，決定將辭職信副本發給記者，并且在公開場合只發表一些不痛不癢的評論。

Jobs had considered just mailing in his letter of resignation, but Susan Barnes convinced him that this would be too contemptuous. Instead he drove it to Markkula’s house, where he also found Al Eisenstat. There was a tense conversation for about fifteen minutes; then Barnes, who had been waiting outside, came to the door to retrieve him before he said anything he would regret. He left behind the letter, which he had composed on a Macintosh and printed on the new LaserWriter:

喬布斯覺得，辭職信寄到蘋果公司就行了，但是蘇珊·巴恩斯認為這樣會顯得太過傲慢，并勸服了他。于是，喬布斯駕車前往馬庫拉家遞辭職信，發現蘋果公司的法律總顧問阿爾·艾森斯塔特也在那兒。他們進行了15分鐘的緊張談話，在喬布斯還沒來得及說出些令自己后悔的話前，巴恩斯就上門把他接走了。喬布斯留下了辭職信，這封信是在麥金塔電腦上寫的，并通過新的激光打印機打印了出來：

September 17, 1985

1985年9月17日

Dear Mike:

親愛的邁克：

This morning’s papers carried suggestions that Apple is considering removing me as Chairman. I don’t know the source of these reports but they are both misleading to the public and unfair to me.

今早的報紙報道，蘋果公司正考慮撤去我的董事長職務。我不知道這些報道的消息來源，但是它們具有誤導性，對我來說也不公平。

You will recall that at last Thursday’s Board meeting I stated I had decided to start a new venture and I tendered my resignation as Chairman.

你應該記得，在上周四的董事會會議上，我表示，自己決定創辦一家新公司，并且提出辭去董事長一職。

The Board declined to accept my resignation and asked me to defer it for a week. I agreed to do so in light of the encouragement the Board offered with regard to the proposed new venture and the indications that Apple would invest in it. On Friday, after I told John Sculley who would be joining me, he confirmed Apple’s willingness to discuss areas of possible collaboration between Apple and my new venture.

董事會拒絕了我的辭職請求，并要求我將此事推遲一周解決。鑒于董事會對于我成立新公司提議的鼓勵，以及蘋果公司表示將進行投資，我同意了這個要求。周五，我告訴約翰·斯卡利哪些人將加入我的新公司，他明確表示蘋果公司愿意討論彼此之間可能的合作領域。

Subsequently the Company appears to be adopting a hostile posture toward me and the new venture. Accordingly, I must insist upon the immediate acceptance of my resignation. . . .

隨后，公司似乎對我及新公司采取了敵對姿態。因此，我必須堅持，請立即接受我的辭職請求……

As you know, the company’s recent reorganization left me with no work to do and no access even to regular management reports. I am but 30 and want still to contribute and achieve.

正如你所知，公司近期的重組讓我沒有工作可做，甚至無法接觸到定期的管理報告。我不過才30歲，希望自己仍然能夠有所貢獻和成就。

After what we have accomplished together, I would wish our parting to be both amicable and dignified.

我們曾共同做出了一番成就，鑒于此，我希望我們的分離能夠友好而不失尊嚴。

Yours sincerely, steven p. Jobs

你真誠的，

史蒂文·P·喬布斯