Apple vs Klarna: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Apple and Klarna side by side

1. 1976Apple

   Apple is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, turning an early personal-computer board into a company with a product and a market.

   Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple in 1976, when personal computing was still a hobbyist market.

2. 1977Apple

   The Apple II launches and gives the young company an expandable personal computer for schools, homes, and small businesses.

   The Apple II turned a garage project into a business. Color graphics, expansion slots and a consumer-friendly design carried it into schools, homes and small offices, giving Apple a revenue base years before the Macintosh.

3. 1980Apple

   Apple completes its initial public offering in December 1980, raising capital and turning personal computing into a public-market story.

   The December 1980 IPO gave Apple public-market capital and made personal computing look like a serious commercial category. It also raised the pressure to professionalize management, distribution and product planning as the company outgrew its founding team.

4. 1984Apple

   The Macintosh introduces a graphical interface and mouse-driven computing to a broad audience at a $2,495 launch price.

   The Macintosh brought a graphical interface and a mouse to a mass-market computer and defined Apple's design identity.

5. 1997Apple

   Apple completes the NeXT acquisition, bringing Steve Jobs back and supplying the operating-system foundation for the years that followed.

   Apple's NeXT acquisition brought Steve Jobs back when the company was financially weak and unfocused.

6. 2001Apple

   Apple introduces the iPod on October 23, 2001, a 5GB music player priced at $399 that held about 1,000 songs.

   The iPod put a hard-drive music library in a pocket at $399 and went on sale on November 10, 2001.

7. 2005Klarna

   Founded as Kreditor

   Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth and Victor Jacobsson launch an invoice-after-delivery service for Swedish online shops.

8. 2007Apple

   The iPhone is introduced as a phone, widescreen iPod, and internet communicator, moving Apple into the center of mobile computing.

   The iPhone moved Apple into mobile computing and shifted the company's center of gravity away from the Mac. It also created the hardware base that later supported services, accessories and developer economics.

9. 2008Apple

   The App Store opens with 500 apps, creating a controlled software marketplace that becomes a major Services pillar.

   The App Store launched with 500 apps and gave iPhone owners a single, controlled way to install third-party software.

10. 2009Klarna

    Renamed Klarna

    Kreditor is rebranded as Klarna and expands across the Nordics and into Germany and the Netherlands.

11. 2011Apple

    Tim Cook becomes chief executive on August 24, 2011, after Steve Jobs resigns and the board names Cook to succeed him.

    Apple's board named Tim Cook chief executive on August 24, 2011, when Steve Jobs resigned and recommended the succession plan be carried out.

12. 2014Apple

    Apple agrees to acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $3 billion, its largest deal.

    Apple agreed to buy Beats Music and Beats Electronics for a total of $3 billion, about $2.6 billion in purchase price plus roughly $400 million vesting over time, and brought in founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

13. 2014Klarna

    Acquires SOFORT

    Klarna completes its purchase of German bank-transfer payment provider SOFORT, giving it scale in the DACH region.

14. 2017Klarna

    Swedish banking licence

    Klarna receives a full banking licence from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, operating as Klarna Bank AB.

15. 2020Apple

    Apple announces the Mac transition to Apple silicon, deepening control over performance, power efficiency, and software optimization.

    Apple began moving Mac computers off Intel processors and onto its own M-series chips in 2020.

16. 2021Klarna

    $45.6 billion valuation

    A SoftBank-led funding round values Klarna at $45.6 billion during the pandemic e-commerce boom.

17. 2022Klarna

    Valuation reset and layoffs

    Klarna cuts about 10% of staff in May and raises money in July at a $6.7 billion valuation.

18. 2024Apple

    Vision Pro launches at $3,499 and gives Apple a shipping platform for spatial interfaces, sensors, and custom silicon.

    Vision Pro gave Apple a live platform for spatial interfaces, eye and hand input, high-resolution displays and custom chips.

19. 2024Klarna

    Return to net profit

    Klarna reports a $21 million net profit for 2024 on $2.81 billion of revenue.

20. 2025Klarna

    NYSE IPO

    Klarna lists on the New York Stock Exchange as KLAR in September 2025, pricing at $40 per share.

21. 2026Apple

    John Ternus becomes chief executive on September 1, 2026, and Tim Cook becomes executive chairman.

    John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, became chief executive on September 1, 2026, and Tim Cook became executive chairman after 15 years as CEO.

22. 2026Klarna

    FY2025 results

    Klarna reports $3.51 billion of FY2025 revenue, $127.9 billion of GMV, $65 million of adjusted operating profit and a $273 million net loss.

23. 2026Klarna

    Q2 profit and guidance cut

    Klarna posts a $9 million Q2 2026 net profit on $1.042 billion of revenue but lowers 2026 GMV guidance to $149-151 billion.

Acquisitions

Questions about Apple vs Klarna