5 ms·

Their hardware was a resounding flop and building a state-of-the-art production facility for something for which there was no demand is in retrospect clearly a

by wheels 15y ago

Their hardware was a resounding flop and building a state-of-the-art production facility for something for which there was no demand is in retrospect clearly a mistake. Also, given that NeXT was bought for about 15% of Apple's market cap (after laying off most of their employees), it's disingenuous to imply that Apple == NeXT. What saved Apple was the iPod, not OS X and Cocoa.

aaronbrethorst 15y ago
NeXT, effectively, acquired Apple for negative $429 million (and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock): As everyone knows by now, what began as an Apple purchase of NeXT has been turned inside out and become a NeXT takeover. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1997/03/2596 http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1997/03/2596 edit: I want to add a couple points to my followup. 1. NeXT's hardware was a resounding flop. Their state-of-the-art factory turned out to be for naught. This is absolutely true. 2. That said, this mistake did not prevent NeXT from co-opting Apple and becoming the third largest company (by market cap) in the world. 3. Apple == NeXT: Apple was, pun intended, rotten. Steve Jobs and his most trusted lieutenants assumed key positions of power throughout Apple. The only highly visible and critical Apple employee I can identify who pre-dated Steve's return to Apple is Jony Ive. However, Ive was laboring in obscurity before Steve assumed his position as "iCEO" of Apple[1 and 2]. 4. Arguably, the iMac saved Apple. In one of the recently-posted WWDC or Macworld keynotes, Steve addresses this point in quite a bit of detail. The iPod made Apple a veritable powerhouse...but not at first[3]. The iPhone made Apple, well, Apple. As it happens, the iPhone (and OS X, and the iPad) is the result of decades of engineering work that started at NeXT[4]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive#Career http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive#Career [2] http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/091797apple.html http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/091797apple.html [3] http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iPod http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iP... [4] Or, to be pedantic, at CMU, where Mach was originally co-developed by Avie Tevanian, who later became the SVP of Software Engineering at Apple.
- nowarninglabel 15y ago
  Journalistic hyperbole is not equal to fact. Apple acquired NeXT, for $400 million in cash in stock, at a time in which Apple had a market cap of $3.1 billion. I don't know why you seem to think otherwise. Read it from the horse's mouth along with the relevant financial statements: http://web.archive.org/web/20020208190346/http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1997/q1/961220.pr.rel.next.html http://web.archive.org/web/20020208190346/http://product.inf... http://news.cnet.com/Apple-acquires-Next,-Jobs/2100-1001_3-256914.html http://news.cnet.com/Apple-acquires-Next,-Jobs/2100-1001_3-2... http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Data/Market_Capitalization/1996 http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Data/Market_Capi... Again, I don't understand why you seem to think otherwise.
  - aaronbrethorst 15y ago
    Within a period of, I believe, 12 months, Steve Jobs became CEO, installed NeXT execs in almost every key exec role in Apple, and replaced the board of directors. Although Apple acquired NeXT, in every meaningful way, NeXT consumed Apple. edit: here we go: http://www.apple.com/ca/press/1997/08/NewBoD.html http://www.apple.com/ca/press/1997/08/NewBoD.html -- Steve convinced three of five to leave.
- philwelch 15y ago
  The only highly visible and critical Apple employee I can identify who pre-dated Steve's return to Apple is Jony Ive. Fred Anderson, the CFO under Amelio, was kept on until the backdating scandal. He played a key role in saving Apple--they were almost cash broke when Amelio took over, and Anderson arranged a key bond issue to keep the company afloat.
  - sambeau 15y ago
    And Ive was a mostly invisible, disenfranchised employee then.
- zppx 15y ago
  Takeover for me means change of hands of ownership and power of decision in the company, and whatever your technical or managerial arguments are I think the resulting company was owned by Apple's stockholders, Steve Jobs probably among then after the acquisition, not by NeXT investors.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

by wheels 15y ago

aaronbrethorst 15y ago

NeXT, effectively, acquired Apple for negative $429 million (and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock): As everyone knows by now, what began as an Apple purchase of NeXT has been turned inside out and become a NeXT takeover. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1997/03/2596 http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1997/03/2596 edit: I want to add a couple points to my followup. 1. NeXT's hardware was a resounding flop. Their state-of-the-art factory turned out to be for naught. This is absolutely true. 2. That said, this mistake did not prevent NeXT from co-opting Apple and becoming the third largest company (by market cap) in the world. 3. Apple == NeXT: Apple was, pun intended, rotten. Steve Jobs and his most trusted lieutenants assumed key positions of power throughout Apple. The only highly visible and critical Apple employee I can identify who pre-dated Steve's return to Apple is Jony Ive. However, Ive was laboring in obscurity before Steve assumed his position as "iCEO" of Apple[1 and 2]. 4. Arguably, the iMac saved Apple. In one of the recently-posted WWDC or Macworld keynotes, Steve addresses this point in quite a bit of detail. The iPod made Apple a veritable powerhouse...but not at first[3]. The iPhone made Apple, well, Apple. As it happens, the iPhone (and OS X, and the iPad) is the result of decades of engineering work that started at NeXT[4]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive#Career http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive#Career [2] http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/091797apple.html http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/091797apple.html [3] http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iPod http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iP... [4] Or, to be pedantic, at CMU, where Mach was originally co-developed by Avie Tevanian, who later became the SVP of Software Engineering at Apple.

nowarninglabel 15y ago
Journalistic hyperbole is not equal to fact. Apple acquired NeXT, for $400 million in cash in stock, at a time in which Apple had a market cap of $3.1 billion. I don't know why you seem to think otherwise. Read it from the horse's mouth along with the relevant financial statements: http://web.archive.org/web/20020208190346/http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1997/q1/961220.pr.rel.next.html http://web.archive.org/web/20020208190346/http://product.inf... http://news.cnet.com/Apple-acquires-Next,-Jobs/2100-1001_3-256914.html http://news.cnet.com/Apple-acquires-Next,-Jobs/2100-1001_3-2... http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Data/Market_Capitalization/1996 http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Data/Market_Capi... Again, I don't understand why you seem to think otherwise.
- aaronbrethorst 15y ago
  Within a period of, I believe, 12 months, Steve Jobs became CEO, installed NeXT execs in almost every key exec role in Apple, and replaced the board of directors. Although Apple acquired NeXT, in every meaningful way, NeXT consumed Apple. edit: here we go: http://www.apple.com/ca/press/1997/08/NewBoD.html http://www.apple.com/ca/press/1997/08/NewBoD.html -- Steve convinced three of five to leave.
philwelch 15y ago
The only highly visible and critical Apple employee I can identify who pre-dated Steve's return to Apple is Jony Ive. Fred Anderson, the CFO under Amelio, was kept on until the backdating scandal. He played a key role in saving Apple--they were almost cash broke when Amelio took over, and Anderson arranged a key bond issue to keep the company afloat.
- sambeau 15y ago
  And Ive was a mostly invisible, disenfranchised employee then.
zppx 15y ago
Takeover for me means change of hands of ownership and power of decision in the company, and whatever your technical or managerial arguments are I think the resulting company was owned by Apple's stockholders, Steve Jobs probably among then after the acquisition, not by NeXT investors.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]