Bill Gates

Well, it's funny. I actually do have some color on why he did the deal. Steve Jobs wanted to message this as Microsoft believes in the Mac as a great way to use the Office suite. They believe in us as a company, and so they're investing $150 million and making this commitment to help us get through this difficult time.

Well, it's funny. I actually do have some color on why he did the deal. Steve Jobs wanted to message this as Microsoft believes in the Mac as a great way to use the Office suite. They believe in us as a company, and so they're investing $150 million and making this commitment to help us get through this difficult time.

And this money, by the way, just to help people understand, Apple was worth about $2 billion at the time. So this is Microsoft buying 8% of Apple. Yeah.

And this money, by the way, just to help people understand, Apple was worth about $2 billion at the time. So this is Microsoft buying 8% of Apple. Yeah.

Steve cleverly identified this moment as a time to call Microsoft and say, hey, I know we're through all the patent issues, that big lawsuit. I have more. I think you guys are using some of our stuff. I don't want to sue you. I know the DOJ is sort of looking at you guys for antitrust right now.

Steve cleverly identified this moment as a time to call Microsoft and say, hey, I know we're through all the patent issues, that big lawsuit. I have more. I think you guys are using some of our stuff. I don't want to sue you. I know the DOJ is sort of looking at you guys for antitrust right now.

Apple was aware that Microsoft would be interested in appearing collaborative with another major player in the ecosystem. And so we sort of have the leverage to say, hey, what if you guys invested in us and did this big commitment to Office for Mac? It's super important to help us get through this difficult time. And Microsoft said back, well, it's really important to us to have IE everywhere.

Apple was aware that Microsoft would be interested in appearing collaborative with another major player in the ecosystem. And so we sort of have the leverage to say, hey, what if you guys invested in us and did this big commitment to Office for Mac? It's super important to help us get through this difficult time. And Microsoft said back, well, it's really important to us to have IE everywhere.

And so they rolled it all into one big deal. No one's going to sue anyone. All the IP is cross-licensed. And Microsoft gets the win with IE. Apple gets the win with the investment in Office. And we can all walk away.

And so they rolled it all into one big deal. No one's going to sue anyone. All the IP is cross-licensed. And Microsoft gets the win with IE. Apple gets the win with the investment in Office. And we can all walk away.

Apple is saved. Truly, Apple would have gone out of business had Steve Jobs not seized this opportunity.

Apple is saved. Truly, Apple would have gone out of business had Steve Jobs not seized this opportunity.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Google is three years from being founded. Facebook is nine years from being founded.

Google is three years from being founded. Facebook is nine years from being founded.

There's real competition in the enterprise at this point, Sun, Oracle. But in terms of what your point is, the consumer technology landscape, yeah, they had ultimate power. Yep. Yeah, but David, I don't know. The whole thing of you can just decide to and then you completely vanquish your biggest existential threat by cutting off their air supply. Shouldn't that be illegal?

There's real competition in the enterprise at this point, Sun, Oracle. But in terms of what your point is, the consumer technology landscape, yeah, they had ultimate power. Yep. Yeah, but David, I don't know. The whole thing of you can just decide to and then you completely vanquish your biggest existential threat by cutting off their air supply. Shouldn't that be illegal?

Well... To lead you a little bit into our next section. Yeah. Well, listeners, I think you know what is coming next based on David and I coyly alluding to it. But before we get there, we've really been talking about this idea of development platforms.

Well... To lead you a little bit into our next section. Yeah. Well, listeners, I think you know what is coming next based on David and I coyly alluding to it. But before we get there, we've really been talking about this idea of development platforms.