Jean-Louis Gassée

Jean-Louis Gassée, born March 1944 in Paris – was an executive at Apple Computer from 1981 to 1990, first starting Apple's French subsidiary and later working as lead of Product Development.

History

In 1990 he quit Apple to start Be Inc., which developed and released the media operating system BeOS. Famously, Apple offered to buy Be in 1996 for $125 million but Gassée demanded $200 million, a price Apple found outrageous. Instead Apple went on to purchase NeXTSTEP and reacquired Steve Jobs in the process, while Be was eventually sold for $11 million to Palm, Inc. in August 2001. BeOS had gained a cult following, but the company was never financally viable. Gassée left Palm in January 2002.

Since then, JLG has served briefly as President and CEO of Computer Access Technology Corporation (CATC) and is now a General Partner at Allegis Capital, a venture fund in Palo Alto, California. Since November 2004 he is chairman of PalmSource, Inc..