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Yeah, Steve spent much of his Apple fortune on NeXT and Pixar. Both could have easily failed. So Jobs was a billionaire in 1995. I wonder what would have happ

by melling 10y ago

Yeah, Steve spent much of his Apple fortune on NeXT and Pixar. Both could have easily failed. So Jobs was a billionaire in 1995. I wonder what would have happened if Microsoft hadn't invested $150 million in Apple in 1997?

izolate 10y ago
Unknown, but it's overstated how much of that $150 million cash injection actually helped. It's more likely the undisclosed sum (well higher) that kept Apple from the brink of bankruptcy.
riprowan 10y ago
NeXT did fail by most standards. It didn't turn profit and went out of business after a generation or so of products that failed to penetrate the market.
- jeremiep 10y ago
  They ended up being the foundation of OS X and the box on which the web was invented. Even if NeXT failed as a company they're still a historic milestone.
  - zeristor 10y ago
    NeXT was cheaper than BeOS, wasn't that a key thing?
    - ksherlock 10y ago
      Apple paid $429 million for NeXT. Be was offered $125 million but wanted $300 million.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- melling 10y ago
  NeXT was bought by Apple for $400 million dollars and today NeXTStep is running on a billion Apple devices.
  - petra 10y ago
    Without jobs, would it stilll happen?
    - TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
      No. Apple was completely lost before Jobs returned. The hardware was a marketing mess, and the software was stuck in R&D hell with no prospect of escape. There were some interesting ideas, but execution and management were all over the place. I don't think Jobs is an example of survivor bias. I think Jobs was an extremely talented marketer with an unusual aesthetic sense. Sociopaths are more likely to kill their companies than make them grow. They love drama, abuse, and terror for their own sake. Jobs was more of a narcissist. He lacked empathy, but he wasn't constantly trying to destroy other people because he enjoyed it. It was more that he knew what he wanted - his own vision of himself as a guru of consumer technology, aesthetics, and creativity - and he didn't care what it cost to get it. Personal and business relationships were all disposable. The vision wasn't.
  - abecedarius 10y ago
    As some wag put it, NeXT bought Apple for $-400 million dollars. (Assuming that's the figure, I don't remember myself.)
- pyvpx 10y ago
  if you've ever coded for iOS, the NS in all those objects and methods? it stands for NeXTStep
kmonsen 10y ago
They also provided office/IE for Mac at a time when that was really important.
jimbokun 10y ago
"I wonder what would have happened if Microsoft hadn't invested $150 million in Apple in 1997?" But this was't completely luck. It was negotiated by Jobs.

by melling 10y ago

izolate 10y ago

Unknown, but it's overstated how much of that $150 million cash injection actually helped. It's more likely the undisclosed sum (well higher) that kept Apple from the brink of bankruptcy.

riprowan 10y ago

NeXT did fail by most standards. It didn't turn profit and went out of business after a generation or so of products that failed to penetrate the market.

jeremiep 10y ago
They ended up being the foundation of OS X and the box on which the web was invented. Even if NeXT failed as a company they're still a historic milestone.
- zeristor 10y ago
  NeXT was cheaper than BeOS, wasn't that a key thing?
  - ksherlock 10y ago
    Apple paid $429 million for NeXT. Be was offered $125 million but wanted $300 million.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
melling 10y ago
NeXT was bought by Apple for $400 million dollars and today NeXTStep is running on a billion Apple devices.
- petra 10y ago
  Without jobs, would it stilll happen?
  - TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
    No. Apple was completely lost before Jobs returned. The hardware was a marketing mess, and the software was stuck in R&D hell with no prospect of escape. There were some interesting ideas, but execution and management were all over the place. I don't think Jobs is an example of survivor bias. I think Jobs was an extremely talented marketer with an unusual aesthetic sense. Sociopaths are more likely to kill their companies than make them grow. They love drama, abuse, and terror for their own sake. Jobs was more of a narcissist. He lacked empathy, but he wasn't constantly trying to destroy other people because he enjoyed it. It was more that he knew what he wanted - his own vision of himself as a guru of consumer technology, aesthetics, and creativity - and he didn't care what it cost to get it. Personal and business relationships were all disposable. The vision wasn't.
- abecedarius 10y ago
  As some wag put it, NeXT bought Apple for $-400 million dollars. (Assuming that's the figure, I don't remember myself.)
pyvpx 10y ago
if you've ever coded for iOS, the NS in all those objects and methods? it stands for NeXTStep

kmonsen 10y ago

They also provided office/IE for Mac at a time when that was really important.

jimbokun 10y ago

"I wonder what would have happened if Microsoft hadn't invested $150 million in Apple in 1997?" But this was't completely luck. It was negotiated by Jobs.