From 1985 until his death in 2016, Spindler lived between Paris, France, and San Francisco, California, United States, with his wife Maryse and three kids Karen, Laurie, and John.
[2][1] Spindler graduated from engineering at Technical University in Cologne in 1964[2] and worked at DEC and Intel, before he moved to join Apple Computer.
Spindler presided over several successful projects, such as the introduction of the PowerPC, as well as some major failures, including the Newton and the Copland operating system.
[4] During his tenure the Apple board authorized merger discussions with IBM, Sun Microsystems and Philips, but when these went nowhere, he was replaced by Gil Amelio on February 2, 1996.
His longtime friend and business partner Jean-Louis Gassée stated, "Mike was an original, highly cultured mind, with high-level geopolitical views of our industry.