r/interesting • u/tyrion2024 • 19d ago

MISC. After Steve Jobs learned about Windows (which used a mouse & a GUI), he accused Bill Gates of stealing Apple's idea. Gates replied "Well Steve...I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox & I broke into his house to steal the TV set & found out that you had already stolen it."

https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/bill-gates-steve-jobs-friends-feud-a7627431.html
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u/uknow_es_me 19d ago

Actually a big part of saving their business was Microsoft. "In August 1997, Microsoft made a historic $150 million investment in Apple to help stabilize the struggling company."

Microsoft had their own motivations - the government was looking at busting them up as a monopoly and Apple disappearing from the marketplace wouldn't have helped their defense. Then the most popular application for Mac was Office and Microsoft had invested a LOT of money in the development of that product.

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u/_Averix 19d ago

The Mac versions of Office were terrible for that period. It was like a product no one really wanted to make or use, but there it was.

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u/Syzygy2323 17d ago

I bought Apple stock in ‘97 for $0.20 a share. It’s worth a lot more now.

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u/DanNorder 18d ago

Crediting Microsoft for saving Apple kind of has it backwards. Microsoft was still on the hook for several pending lawsuits that Apple had raised, including another "look and feel" case. (The monopoly case, as you mentioned, was also a component of Microsoft being so scared for their future.) Microsoft bought 10% of Apple as part of the secret settlement of these cases, because Jobs felt it would look better to get a lot of money right away that even more later in what many in business thought was a cheap and unworthy legal maneuver. Apple not only successfully navigated the public's neverending ability to make incorrect snap judgements for years but finally learned to use it to their advantage.