iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business

iCon takes a look at the most astounding figure in a business era noted for its mavericks, oddballs, and iconoclasts. Drawing on a wide range of sources in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Jeffrey Young, author of the first-ever Jobs biography, and coauthor William Simon provide new perspectives on the legendary creation of Apple in a Silicon Valley garage and detail Jobs's meteoric rise as the prototypical digital wunderkind and the devastating plunge that left him not only out of Apple, but out of the computer-making business entirely.

Act two begins with Jobs displaying his talent for bedeviling business associates and making enemies along the way. Still stinging with embarrassment after his crash from the heights, he waged a tough negotiation with George Lucas for the purchase of the legendary filmmaker's computer animation business-at one-third of the asking price-and pressured his "partners" into settling for a modest percentage of what would become Pixar, keeping the remainder for himself.

This unflinching and completely unauthorized portrait reveals both sides of Jobs's role in the remarkable rise of the Pixar animation studio, from Toy Story and the string of hit movies that delighted audiences around the world to his rocky alliance with Disney. It also re-creates the acrimony between Jobs and Disney's Michael Eisner, which ended the once-close relationship between the two companies.