4 ms·

In 1997, Microsoft rescued Apple with a $150 million investment just so that Apple could survive as a viable competitor. http://www.apple.com/ca/press/1997/08/

• deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
• haentz 15y ago
  Actually this might haven been the worst investment MS ever did…
• j79 15y ago
  The problem with the "$150 million investment saving Apple" argument is that Apple had $1.2 billion cash on hand. Personally, I think it was Microsoft's commitment to keep Office for Mac (as well as building/bundling IE for Mac - which at the time, was a damn good browser!) that "rescued" Apple to a certain degree (it definitely made it a viable machine for the education market!) Honestly though, I think after Steve Jobs returned and killed off the clones (and released the new iMac), Apple would have succeeded (or at least, not "died") even without Microsoft's investment --- mostly due to how loyal the users are. No clue how successful they would have been though, without IE/Office (I doubt MS would have killed Office though - considering it was still generating cash for them...)
• berntb 15y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2460925 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2460925
• tzs 15y ago
  As others have pointed out, Apple had a giant stash of cash. $150 million was small change to Apple at the time. It is widely speculated that this deal was really a settlement over the alleged infringements in Windows of Apple's IP. Microsoft pays Apple $150 million, disguised as a face saving investment, and agrees to keep Office on the platform for a few years, and Apple doesn't sue the crap out of Windows.