3 ms·
> Microsoft invested a whopping $250 million in Apple. Apple already had secured a $4 billion line of credit and didn’t become profitable until losing billions
by oblio 3y ago
> Microsoft invested a whopping $250 million in Apple. Apple already had secured a $4 billion line of credit and didn’t become profitable until losing billions more. The $250 wouldn’t have saved Apple.
It was still a signal. Signals matter, especially when a company is in distress.
> And Office was not charity project for MS, it made a hefty profit. Also it was much easier to convince corporate buyers to buy Office if they could use on Office Suite across their entire organization - even for those hippie Mac users in the corner.
I didn't say it was a charity project and your interpretation is far too lenient for Apple. First of all, Microsoft definitely did NOT have any problems selling Microsoft Office after at least 1995.
Secondly, that "hefty profit" was peanuts for Microsoft. It wasn't a "move the needle" type of investment for them.
They did both those things purely because the DoJ made Gates sweat.
- scarface_74 3y agoSo now it’s a “signal” since you see how utterly insane the idea that a net $150 million saved Apple? You also don’t seem to remember that it was also to settle the Quicktime lawsuit where Microsoft actually used Apple’s copyrighted code. This was separate from the dumb look and feel lawsuit.
- Anechoic 3y agoThey did both those things purely because the DoJ made Gates sweat. They did both those things to settle a lawsuit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company