Apple goespast $1 trillion barrier

Market anxiously awaits new iphone

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple has become the world’s first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion, the financial fruit of stylish technology that has redefined what we expect from our gadgets.

The milestone reached Thursday marks the latest triumph of a company that two mavericks named Steve started in a Silicon Valley garage 42 years ago.

Apple hit the $1 trillion mark when its shares reached $207.04 around midday. They rose to an all-time high of $208.32 before falling back slightly. The shares are up around 23 percent so far this year.

The achievement seemed unimaginable in 1997 when Apple teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, with its stock trading for less than $1, on a split-adjusted basis, and its market value dropping below $2 billion.

Apple brought back its once-exiled co-founder, Steve Jobs, as interim CEO. Jobs’ ignominious departure in 1985 came after losing a power struggle with John Sculley, a former Pepsico executive he recruited to become CEO in 1983 — seven years after he and Steve Wozniak teamed up to start the company.

As CEO, Jobs eventually introduced popular products such as the ipod and iphone. The stock has been surging this week as anticipation mounts for the next generation of iphone.

Jobs lured a soft-spoken Southerner, Tim Cook, away from Compaq Computer in 1998.

As Jobs’ top lieutenant, Cook oversaw the intricate supply chain that fed consumers’ appetite for Apple’s devices and then held the company together in 2004 when Jobs was stricken with a cancer that forced him to periodically step away from work. Just months away from his death, Jobs officially handed off the CEO reins to Cook in August 2011.

Although Apple has yet to produce another mass-market sensation since that changing of the guard, Cook has leveraged the legacy that Jobs left behind to stunning heights.