78
Bloomberg Businessweek December 23, 2019restructurings, downsizings, and mergers. The nascent digital revolution
combinedwithhealthyconsumerspending,recedingunemployment,and
lowinflationtoproducewhatanalystscalleda Goldilockseconomy. Foreign
investors flocked to America. The European Union, partly in an attempt to
mimic U.S. success, introduced the euro, its single currency. As the 21st cen-
tury dawned, BusinessWeek sought to capture the new American pros-
perity and self-assuredness with a Feb. 14, 2000, cover story. It was titled,
simply,“Boom.”
Unfortunately,asin 1929,ourtimingwasn’tsogreat:Thedot-combubble
poppedlessthana monthlater.Aftera disastrousFebruaryinitial public offer-
ing, Pets.com and its canine Sock Puppet mascot became memorable early
casualties. By December, our body count was 75 “e-tailers.” (One noteworthy
exceptionwasAmazon.comInc.JeffBezos,wewrotethatMay,“isn’tletting
allthehand-wringing about Amazon’s high-risk strategy get him down.”) By
the end of the year, the stock market had dropped almost 14% from its peak
in March—and it had much further to fall, though there would be no moment
lower than the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.
Yet barely a month after the Twin Towers fell, Jobs introduced the iPod, the
digital music player that put thousands of songs in your pocket and synced
with a computer program called iTunes, and Apple Computer Inc., whose
shares were just $1.30 at the time, began its epic ascent. For a world still smol-
dering,herewasa rayofhope,courtesyofa mock-turtleneckedentrepreneur-
aesthete who knew a few things about second acts.
What followed is the stuff of legend: from iPod Shuffles to iPhones, Apple
Stores to App Stores, Apple Watches to Apple TVs, Apple AirPods to, well,
Apple AirPods Pro. “Jobs and his lieutenants parlayed their uncommon obses-
sion with design and ease of use into an historic run,” Bloomberg’s Brad Stone
wrote when Apple—by now just Apple Inc.—became the first U.S. company
to pass a $1 trillion market capitalization in August 2018. (Another cover that
makes us wince today: “The Fall of an American Icon,” about Apple in 1996.)
It’s easy to overlook the feat now, but the incredible evolution of technol-
ogy since just the turn of this century has, in its finest moments, produced
wonder. It’s also produced anger, especially in the midst of Lehman Brothers’
implosion and the ensuing financial crisis, which happened to hit especially
close to home for the magazine. As we were to learn, Standard & Poor’s was
an enabler of the carnage that transpired and, like BusinessWeek, the rat-
ingcompanyalsohappenedtobea unitofMcGraw-Hill.Asourlongtime
owner’sbusinessturneddire,BusinessWeekchangedhands—andproceeded
toreinvent itself for the times with a dramatic redesign, becoming an early
iteration of the magazine we are today.
From the beginning, Businessweek has covered the entire world. The ear-
liest issues in 1929 warned that European employers were looking askance
at Henry Ford’s wage theories. The magazine covered the devastation of
WorldWarII andthemiraculouspostwareconomicrecoveries.It probedbusi-
nessopportunitiesinLatinAmerica,Africa,andacrossAsia.Itdocumented
the rise of Japan and the even more dramatic rise of China. Hong Kong cor-
respondent Joyce Barnathan and her co-authors even issued a prescient● 2004
A December cover story
declares that “the China
Price” are “the three
scariest words in U.S.
industry. Cut your price
at least 30% or lose your
customers.”● 2006
BusinessWeek introduces
former General Electric
CEO Jack Welch and his
wife, Suzy, as columnists,
promising “blunt, get-it-
done answers.”● 2009
BusinessWeek’s finances worsen during
the decade after the dot-com boom’s
profit surge. McGraw-Hill Cos. Chairman
and CEO Terry McGraw (left) discusses
a transaction with Michael Bloomberg in
December. Bloomberg LP soon buys the
magazine for an undisclosed price and
renames it Bloomberg Businessweek.
Josh Tyrangiel is hired as editor-in-chief.MCGRAW: PATRICK MCMULLAN. PAULSON: HENRY LEUTWYLER/CONTOUR/GETTY IMAGES. POLLOCK: LARRY BUSACCA/GETTY IMAGES▼ 2000s