The part you are missing is that at that time, it felt like the entire company's future was in jeopardy. It wasn't inconceivable, back then, that if Netscape do

The part you are missing is that at that time, it felt like the entire company's future was in jeopardy. It wasn't inconceivable, back then, that if Netscape dominated, every aspect of Microsoft's business would soon be rendered obsolete. They were working hard to ensure the company continued to exist, a pretty noble cause. Your "3rd version of MS web browser" is a trivialization.