Microsoft Threatened To Kill Mac Office To Gain Infamous 1997 Apple Deal, E-Mails Reveal – InformationWeek.com: Ah, more evidence has been found on M$’s negotiation strategies, such naughty boys.
Weeks prior to bailing out a struggling Apple Computer by purchasing $150 million of its stock, Microsoft officials threatened to cut development of a key product for the Macintosh in order to coerce its rival to make the deal, according to an e-mail unearthed during a recent court hearing.
In an e-mail to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the head of the company’s Macintosh development unit told his boss that threatening to kill off Microsoft Office for the Mac “is the strongest bargaining point we have.” In the e-mail, Microsoft Mac unit head Ben Waldman further noted that “doing so will do a great deal of harm to Apple immediately.”
Waldman’s e-mail indicates that Microsoft didn’t hesitate to put further pressure on Apple at a time when Apple was reeling from big financial losses and layoffs. Several weeks after Waldman wrote his e-mail in June 1997, Microsoft announced at the Macworld conference in Boston that it had acquired $150 million in Apple stock.
You know he wants to be naughty…
#13
Mouse – Invented at SRI in 1964
3.5″ Floppy – Developed by Sony in 1983
SCSI – Developed by Shugart Associates in 1979
Bitmaps – Clearly you cannot be claiming Apple created bitmaps nor displays.
What was innovative about Apple and the Macintosh is that they standardized on these technologies not that they invented them. Apple’s claim to fame is combining existing inventions in a new way.
#20 now, who let the ipod’s synch soft & itunes be ported to that other OS that has the real marketshare ipod was after?
What I find funny, is the latest mac statement that they aren’t porting itunes to neither windows 64 bits versions (XP nor Vista). What, too small a marketshare to bother?
I was working for Apple at that time as an engineer. I wasn’t in a position to have first hand knowledge of what was happening but the word within the company was that Apple was about to hit Microsoft with a big patent infringement lawsuit. Instead of creating another big Apple v. Microsoft court mess, they decided to settle the suit in the form of a stock purchase.. It made Apple look good because Microsoft was (supposedly??) investing in the company and it didn’t make Microsoft look like a bad guy (borrowing other companies technology) once again. BTW, at that time, Apple still had about $5 billion in the bank.. Far from a bankrupt company and definitely not in need of MSFT’s money.. But Apple was definitely in a poor state after Gil Amelio and the previously CEO’s. This was just part of Job’s turnaround plan for Apple.
#23 See? A well informed person with a positive input. What a pleasure to read a post like that.
Most of you are saying that Apple was in a very poor position at the time. In that case, there is nothing wrong with what Microsoft did. They shouldn’t have needed a club if Apple was so desperate. If MS hadn’t done what they did, there would be no Apple at all.
Most of you are saying that Apple was in a very poor position at the time. In that case, there is nothing wrong with what Microsoft did. They shouldn’t have needed a club if Apple was so desperate. If MS hadn’t done what they did, there would be no Apple at all. Once again, you guys are just engaged in blind MS rage. If Microsoft kills a company, they/re evil. If they save a company, they’re evil.
#24, LOL real hard. I agree, #23 sounds good and I buy it.