It seems that four years ago, not even Steve Jobs nor other Apple folks realized that Apple shares would be what they are today: up by 1600% since early 2003. In a report by Brett Arends on TheStreet.com, it was revealed that even Steve Jobs wasn't able to take advantage of a potential US$ 4 billion in profit because of Apple stocks.

It was also revealed that this is because he made a decision four years ago to "cut his exposure to apple stock". During 2003, Apple stocks was down 80% from its peak. Arends reports that Jobs and the Apple board agreed that Jobs would disregard around 15 million stock options in return for 10 million actual Apple shares.

Arends writes: "At the time, it looked like he was giving up nothing and getting $75 million in return. And, as he had rescued the company from oblivion, who would argue he didn't deserve it?"

Perhaps what's even more amusing is that during March 2003, company employees were allowed to make exchanges similar to what Jobs did. Apple set up a program that let people swap their seemingly worthless, post-bubble stock options for a smaller number of options at a lower strike price. The reason for this is that the exchange would be beneficial as long as the share price stayed low.

As mentioned, Apple stocks is up 1600% since early 2003.

Now that Apple products are so hot, and its stocks so high, one would think that anyone, especially Jobs would wish to just have that potential 4 Billion dollars back. Would Apple folks wish to have all that stock profit back? Arends says that Apple media relations declined to comment on this.