5 ms·

Does nobody seem to remember 18-20 years ago or so when Microsoft actually had to bail out Apple in order to avoid becoming a monopoly?

Anechoic 8y ago
It wasn't a bailout, it was a lawsuit settlement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company
- josefresco 8y ago
  It was both: https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ "In a remarkable feat of negotiating legerdemain, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs got needed cash — in return for non-voting shares — and an assurance that Microsoft would support Office for the Mac for five years. Apple agreed to drop a long-running lawsuit in which they alleged Microsoft copied the look and feel of the Mac OS for Windows and to make Internet Explorer the default browser on its computers — but not the only choice."
scarface74 8y ago
It wasn’t a bailout. The monetary amount was only $250 milllion. Apple turned around and spent $100 million the same quarter to buy out Power Computing’s Mac license. A net $150 million wouldn’t make or break Apple even then.
- triplesec 8y ago
  How can you be so sure about that? Many otherwise very viable companies go bust because of current account issues. $250m is a lot of current account.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Well, you can be sure about that because Apple kept losing money for the next three years. The net $140 million wouldn’t have covered half of thier losses for a quarter.
- beautifulfreak 8y ago
  Microsoft paid $150 million, not $250 million. And Apple had $1.2 billion in cash at the time, so they weren't on the brink of bankruptcy, just headed that way. It looks as if Apple would have won its patent infringement case against Microsoft, since there were thousands of lines of quicktime code found in Windows media player (probably added by mistake, but even so...). That was a smart deal by Apple, dropping the infringement suit, because Microsoft pledged to develop Office for Macs. No Office, no Mac sales to businesses. There was a time when Macs couldn't open Word .doc files, not with formatting intact, so it was an incredible barrier to communication.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Office was available for Macs before it was available for Windows. Word for Mac came out in 1984, Excel in ‘85 and PowerPoint in ‘87 Office for Windows didn’t come out until 1990 and it wasn’t very popular among PC users. Microsoft promised to continue developing Office for Mac.

Anechoic 8y ago

It wasn't a bailout, it was a lawsuit settlement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company

josefresco 8y ago
It was both: https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ "In a remarkable feat of negotiating legerdemain, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs got needed cash — in return for non-voting shares — and an assurance that Microsoft would support Office for the Mac for five years. Apple agreed to drop a long-running lawsuit in which they alleged Microsoft copied the look and feel of the Mac OS for Windows and to make Internet Explorer the default browser on its computers — but not the only choice."

scarface74 8y ago

It wasn’t a bailout. The monetary amount was only $250 milllion. Apple turned around and spent $100 million the same quarter to buy out Power Computing’s Mac license. A net $150 million wouldn’t make or break Apple even then.

triplesec 8y ago
How can you be so sure about that? Many otherwise very viable companies go bust because of current account issues. $250m is a lot of current account.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Well, you can be sure about that because Apple kept losing money for the next three years. The net $140 million wouldn’t have covered half of thier losses for a quarter.
beautifulfreak 8y ago
Microsoft paid $150 million, not $250 million. And Apple had $1.2 billion in cash at the time, so they weren't on the brink of bankruptcy, just headed that way. It looks as if Apple would have won its patent infringement case against Microsoft, since there were thousands of lines of quicktime code found in Windows media player (probably added by mistake, but even so...). That was a smart deal by Apple, dropping the infringement suit, because Microsoft pledged to develop Office for Macs. No Office, no Mac sales to businesses. There was a time when Macs couldn't open Word .doc files, not with formatting intact, so it was an incredible barrier to communication.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Office was available for Macs before it was available for Windows. Word for Mac came out in 1984, Excel in ‘85 and PowerPoint in ‘87 Office for Windows didn’t come out until 1990 and it wasn’t very popular among PC users. Microsoft promised to continue developing Office for Mac.