Of course it matters, as NeXT was nearly out of business by the time Apple bought it. All of their hardware products had failed and their attempt as a cross pla

Of course it matters, as NeXT was nearly out of business by the time Apple bought it. All of their hardware products had failed and their attempt as a cross platform SDK, OpenStep, was barely holding on. Their only successful product was WebObjects (which Apple quickly destroyed) and even that was fairly limited. Without being part of a billion dollar corporation it's unlikely Jobs could've funded his ideas from his personal fortune. I also think it's unlikely he could've done what he did at a Apple at a company where he had fewer checks on his impulses, as his time at NeXT proves.