CapitalTime MachineTHE INVESTMENT TIME MACHINE
Start before the IPO, enter your own stock price, or explore a crypto scenario.
Starting price: $9 · Aug–Sep 1978 preferred agreements
32 AAPL share equivalents per starting share at your ending date.
DOCUMENTED PRIVATE PRICE → IPO OFFER PRICE
Hypothetical price-only value of $1,000.00
$78,222.22Aug–Sep 1978 preferred agreements → 1980-12-12
3555.55555556 AAPL share equivalents · ending price $22
78,222 preferred shares converted into 2,503,104 IPO-basis common shares: 32 per preferred share. Later public splits are added by the ending price date.
Formula: amount ÷ $9 × 32 × AAPL ending price.
Apple 1980 registration statement · SEC archive ↗Apple investor FAQ ↗Illustrative paper value; no sale or access to a historical investment is assumed. Excludes fees, taxes, cash dividends, warrants and other distributions; fractional shares assumed. The IPO mark does not assume an executable sale.
Apple’s 1978 preferred financing and 1979 private common-stock sale can be traced into its 1980 IPO. Early prices and preferred shares require different conversion factors.
$703,998$9 per original preferred share
Continental Illinois Venture and Venrock purchased 78,222 preferred shares at $9. Each later represented 32 IPO-basis common shares; the equity statement records 2,503,104 common shares on conversion.
$6,343,501.50 combined consideration$1.3125 per IPO-basis common share
894,864 newly issued shares and 3,938,280 shares sold by existing holders at $1.3125 on the filing’s split-restated basis. The combined $6,343,501.50 was not all company funding.
$22
The original public offer price was $22. Private entry models compare with this price without reapplying splits already reflected in common-share prices.
Two-for-one in 1987, 2000 and 2005; seven-for-one in 2014; four-for-one in 2020. Together these produce 224 shares per IPO share.
Research reviewed 2026-09-24. Selected public records, not a complete private cap table. An undisclosed price is left unknown.
Open this company’s sourced data (JSON) ↗
Apple 1980 registration statement · SEC archive ↗
Part II, Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities, items 7 and 10; statements of shareholders’ equity, 1978–1979; preferred conversion and pre-IPO splits.
Apple investor FAQ ↗
IPO date and $22 offer price; five subsequent stock splits.
Apple announces four-for-one split ↗
July 30, 2020 release: split-adjusted trading begins August 31, 2020.
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RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Reddit’s reviewed Series F-1 example shows why the funding stage and endpoint both matter. Explore the calculation, then follow the evidence.
CURIOSITY, WITH CONTEXT
Private investments are not equally accessible, and an IPO price is not cash in your pocket. Understand the share terms, the assumptions, and what the historical record cannot tell us.
Understand the methodology ↗
