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Apple would not exist if they had bought Be instead. Buying Next brought Steve back, and that's the only thing that kept Apple alive.
by jki275 7y ago
Apple would not exist if they had bought Be instead. Buying Next brought Steve back, and that's the only thing that kept Apple alive.
- rvz 7y agoWell regardless of whether if Be or NeXT was chosen, Apple was very close to becoming bankrupt in 1997 and without the Microsoft $100M investment in Apple shares, I'm not sure if Apple would be here anyway without it even with Jobs being on board. Apple lost their lawsuits against Microsoft and had to compromise with a deal with Bill Gates to save themselves. It was at that point Microsoft could have refused at the time and Apple would simply be relegated to the history books. You have to thank Gates for saving Apple because Jobs did too. [0] [0] https://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/18/08/06/august-6-1997----the-day-apple-and-microsoft-made-peace https://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/18/08/06/august-6-1...
- jki275 7y agoThat’s a different discussion.
- rvz 7y agoWell you said: "Buying Next brought Steve back, and that's the only thing that kept Apple alive." earlier and the on-going lawsuits were critical for Apple's survival with them having to compromise a deal with Microsoft in order for Bill Gates to save them. The acquisition choice alone was half of the story even if NeXT or Be were bought and Apple still wouldn't be here without compromising a deal with Microsoft to invest in them since the lawsuits were in Microsoft's favour.
- jki275 7y agoApple would be dead if Steve Jobs had not come back. Nothing MS did would have saved Apple if Jobs hadn't come back and turned the company around. That's the end of the story.
- rvz 7y agoIt would be safer to say that history would certainly be different if that outcome happened. But you’re almost there on completing the actual story. You do realise that to turn the company around in the first place you still need cash / stock in the company? The time that Jobs joined, Apple was close to bankruptcy and couldn’t afford to lose anymore lawsuits. He had to compromise with Gates with a lawsuit settlement to invest $100M+ shares in the Apple and offer Office on the Mac which essentially saved them from bankruptcy. There’s plenty of evidence to explain this outcome. My point to this argument is regardless of Jobs returning from NeXT or not, he couldn’t have even performed the turn around without the investment from Gates and the company would be bankrupt anyway. The Microsoft settlement and the investment is the reason why Apple still exists today or else Apple would have no doubt be certainly bankrupt and finished. Period.
- jki275 7y agoThe money could have come from anywhere, and likely Jobs would have found it. It didn't have to come from MS.
- kls 7y agoIt's not really that cash backed Steve's power play to gain control of the company. They are interrelated.
- lproven 7y agoOh not _this_ again. IT WAS NOT AN INVESTMENT. This is a widely-repeated lie. Gates did not “save” Apple. Microsoft did not “invest” in Apple. Microsoft stole Apple code. Apple sued. The companies settled out of court. The famous US$150M payment from MS to Apple was not an investment. It was punitive damages. Microsoft Video for Windows contained code stolen from Apple QuickTime. The money was MS paying the penalty. Citations: • Stop the lies! The day that Microsoft 'saved' Apple | ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/stop-the-lies-the-day-that-microsoft-saved-apple/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/stop-the-lies-the-day-that-mic... • San Francisco Canyon Company - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company