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.”

在感受到高级职员的偾怒后，斯卡利开始征询董事会的意见。他们同样认为，乔布斯曾向他们保证自己不会带走重要员工，如今看来，他误导了他们。亚瑟·罗克尤其感到气愤。虽然在美国阵亡将士纪念日的那次摊牌，罗克支持斯卡利，但是他已经修复了同乔布斯父子般的关系。就在一周前，他还邀请乔布斯带女友蒂娜·莱德斯到旧金山去，让自己和妻子见见她。四人在罗克位于太平洋髙地（PacificHeights）的家中吃了一顿愉快的晚餐，乔布斯当时并没有告诉他自己正在组建新公司。因此，从斯卡利口中得知这一消息时，罗克觉得自己遭到了背叛。“他来到董事会，向我们撒谎。”罗克后来怒吼道，“他跟我们说他正考虑组建一家公司，而事实上他已经组建好了。他说准备带走几个中层职员，结果却要带走五位资深人士。”马库拉的反应虽然较为平和，但也觉得愤怒。“他在走之前就偷愉笼络了一批高层管理人员，带走了他们。做事不能这样。这很下流。”

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，董事会和髙级职员说服斯卡利，表示苹果公司将向它的联合创始人乔布斯宣战。马库拉发表了一份正式声明，指控乔布斯“直接违反了自己在董事会会议上的声明，他曾表示不会在自己的公司中聘用任何重要的苹果公司员工”。这份声明还表示，“我们正在权衡应该采取哪些可能的措施”。《华尔街日报》援引比尔·坎贝尔的说法，他对乔布斯的行为“感到震惊”。该报还引用了另一位不愿具名的董事的话：“在我进行过商业合作的企业中，从来没有见过人们如此愤怒。我们所有人都觉得他意图欺骗我们。”

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.

同斯卡利会面后，乔布斯觉得事情可能会顺利进行，于是他一直保持沉默。但在读完《华尔街日报》的报道后，乔布斯觉得自己必须作出反应。他给自己偏爱的几位记者打了电话，邀请他们第二天来自己家，私下通报一下情况。然后他又打给安德烈嫌·坎宁安，叫她来帮忙，坎宁安曾处理过乔布斯的宣传事务。“我赶到他位于伍德赛德的空屋大宅，”她回忆说，“发现他和他的5个同事蜷缩在厨房里，而一些记者在外面的草坪上等着。”乔布斯告诉她说，自己准备开一个正式的新闻发布会，并把自己想说的一些贬损之辞统统告诉了她。坎宁安震惊了。“这会给你带来负面影响。”她告诉乔布斯。最后，他让步了，决定将辞职信副本发给记者，并且在公开场合只发表一些不痛不痒的评论。

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:

乔布斯觉得，辞职信寄到苹果公司就行了，但是苏珊·巴恩斯认为这样会显得太过傲慢，并劝服了他。于是，乔布斯驾车前往马库拉家递辞职信，发现苹果公司的法律总顾问阿尔·艾森斯塔特也在那儿。他们进行了15分钟的紧张谈话，在乔布斯还没来得及说出些令自己后悔的话前，巴恩斯就上门把他接走了。乔布斯留下了辞职信，这封信是在麦金塔电脑上写的，并通过新的激光打印机打印了出来：

September 17, 1985

1985年9月17日

Dear Mike:

亲爱的迈克：

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.

今早的报纸报道，苹果公司正考虑撤去我的董事长职务。我不知道这些报道的消息来源，但是它们具有误导性，对我来说也不公平。

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.

你应该记得，在上周四的董事会会议上，我表示，自己决定创办一家新公司，并且提出辞去董事长一职。

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.

董事会拒绝了我的辞职请求，并要求我将此事推迟一周解决。鉴于董事会对于我成立新公司提议的鼓励，以及苹果公司表示将进行投资，我同意了这个要求。周五，我告诉约翰·斯卡利哪些人将加入我的新公司，他明确表示苹果公司愿意讨论彼此之间可能的合作领域。

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. . . .

随后，公司似乎对我及新公司采取了敌对姿态。因此，我必须坚持，请立即接受我的辞职请求……

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，公司近期的重组让我没有工作可做，甚至无法接触到定期的管理报告。我不过才30岁，希望自己仍然能够有所贡献和成就。

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

我们曾共同做出了一番成就，鉴于此，我希望我们的分离能够友好而不失尊严。

Yours sincerely, steven p. Jobs

你真诚的，

史蒂文·P·乔布斯