It was $250M, a public acknowledgment of continued Office for Mac development, and the announcement of Internet Explorer for Mac gave investors, business buyers

It was $250M, a public acknowledgment of continued Office for Mac development, and the announcement of Internet Explorer for Mac gave investors, business buyers, and developers confidence in Apple. Because if Microsoft, the biggest tech company at that time, was bullish on Apple the rest of the industry could have faith in them too. The $250M was largely symbolic, everyone knew that.