>I'm confused. Didn't MS basically provide Apple the cash to keep going a
>couple years back? (Or was that all media hype?) I mean, if Apple had that
>kind of fluid cash, then they wouldn't have needed/wanted MS's help, right?
Not at all. Even at what were perceived to be the depths of Apple's troubles, when the company was somewhat disorganized and without strong direction, it was financially still *very* healthy. What was hurting the company almost as much as its' own internal problems was the way it was being protrayed in the press as one step away from either closing up shop or being completely destroyed by Microsoft. (A problem that continues even to this day, despite the significant changes in the way the company operates and several successful and innovative products.)
Microsoft's investment in Apple was, at the heart of it, a vote of confidence and a brilliant PR maneuver to help counter the reports that Apple was doomed. That's all the help Apple really needed.
There were a few conditions attached to the deal; one was an agreement to continue to develop software for the Mac platform. (This expired several months ago, and despite worried speculation fueled by the press, it was much ado about nothing; Microsoft will continue to develop software for the Mac platform as long as it remains profitable to do so.) Another was a cross-licensing agreement that would end the threat of endless litigation in an ongoing lawsuit over Microsoft's infringement of some of the Macintosh OS's interface patents, I believe (but not the threatened "industrial espionage" lawsuit rumored elsewhere in this thread).
And it paid off handsomely; Apple got some positive news coverage about the return of Steve Jobs and the promise of a return to innovation (in advance of the introduction of the iMac) and Microsoft made quite a bit of money on that investment.
And *that's* what it was all about.
BRIAN/bpearce_at_cloud9.net
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