Jamf began with one student worker in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who had to keep 400 university Macs running. Zach Halmstad found plenty of tools for Windows and almost none for Apple. So he wrote his own. Apple devices were spreading through offices and classrooms, and Jamf managed Apple hardware and nothing else. When it went public in July 2020, remote work had sent millions of laptops home, and its stock rose 51 percent on the first day.

Only Apple, Nothing Else

Halmstad and Chip Pearson founded Jamf in 2002. The name comes from a character in Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow. The bet was that Apple would win in schools and businesses, and that its customers would want a specialist. Jamf's software let IT teams set up a new iPad or MacBook without touching it, push updates, and lock lost devices. In 2017 Vista Equity Partners bought a majority stake.

Back to Private Hands

Jamf priced at $26 a share on July 21, 2020, and opened on Nasdaq the next day. It closed its first session at $39.20. The stock later drifted far below its offer price. In 2025 Francisco Partners agreed to buy Jamf for $13.05 a share in cash. The deal closed in January 2026, valuing the company at about $2.2 billion, and Jamf left Nasdaq.

Cover: Gable and Apples, Alfred Stieglitz. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for apples under a gable (Apple devices).