Steve Jobs is leaving Apple in considerably better shape than he found it.

When Apple acquired NeXT, and Jobs, for $400 million in December, 1996, Apple's market cap was $3 billion. Today it's $347 billion, leaving it just $2 billion short of being the most valuable public company in the world, Exxon.

How did Jobs steer the company away from its crash course with the graveyard? By introducing an unrivaled string of hit products.

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