Remember that this was on the heels of NeXTs failure as a hardware company and then their failure to capture any real market as a software company. At the time

Remember that this was on the heels of NeXTs failure as a hardware company and then their failure to capture any real market as a software company. At the time Jobs was probably thinking that it would be quick infusion income to get a major supplier like Dell to license OPENSTEP/Mac OS X or whatever it was at the time, even if he had longer term visions of getting back to hardware (in the consumer space this time, not higher ed/corporate as was the NeXT strategy).