Alternately: 1. Steve -> Manager: This guy e-mailed me again, does this need to be dealt with? 2. Manager -> Steve: It's a good algorithm, but the guy's been

Alternately: 1. Steve -> Manager: This guy e-mailed me again, does this need to be dealt with? 2. Manager -> Steve: It's a good algorithm, but the guy's been demanding and impatient, and with everyone prepping iOS/iPhone 4 for WWDC, Engineer just hasn't had time to look into it. 3. Steve -> Dude: No interest. Specifically, I highly doubt that Steve Jobs would speak directly with an engineer about a potential acquisition of a potentially useful algorithm. I doubt it was ever really on his radar at all after the first 30 seconds where he read it and forwarded it off. That's the entire reason managers exist.