VOL 48: Apple Inc. History: Return of Steve Jobs, Microsoft deal-9
Hey Friends 🤓,
Trust you all had a great week 🤗?
This is the 9th post in a blog series on Apple Inc. History. Our comprehensive history of Apple will take you from its humble beginnings in the 1970s to Jobs' departure and subsequent return to Apple. Join us in following the Apple story!
Today at a Glance:
Quote of the Week
Return of Steve Jobs
Microsoft deal
Past Greats 👴
Business & Startups
Random Facts
Tweet of the Week
Quote of The Week
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
— — —
Steve Jobs
Return of Steve Jobs
Apple bought NeXT (the company Jobs founded after leaving Apple) for $429 million in cash plus 1.5 million shares of Apple stock, effectively buying back Steve Jobs.
This would not only reintroduce Steve Jobs to Apple's management for the first time since 1985, but NeXT technology would also serve as the foundation for the Mac operating system.
The man who co-founded the company was returning after a 12-year absence.
Buying NeXT wasn't enough to solve Apple's problems on its own. Its stock price was falling, and it fell even further over the next six months, to a 12-year low.
Jobs convinced the board of directors that the company's CEO, Gil Amelio, had to step down, and when the board agreed, it appointed Jobs as interim CEO in his place. Apple began a remarkable period of restructuring at that time, which led directly to the successful organization it is today.
Jobs recognized that if Apple was to survive, it needed to focus on a smaller number of products. He reduced the number of computers to four - two for consumers and two for businesses - and closed many auxiliary divisions, including the one working on the Apple Newton.
Simultaneously, he recognized that the licensing agreements Apple had signed were not serving it well, and he terminated them. The immediate effect was negative, as the market share of new computers running Apple's operating system fell from 10% to 3% - but at least 100% of them were built by Apple.
On November 10, 1997, Apple launched the Apple Store, an online retail store based on the WebObjects application server acquired in its acquisition of NeXT.
Microsoft deal
Steve Jobs announced at the 1997 Macworld Expo that Apple would form a partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft committed to releasing Microsoft Office for Macintosh over a five-year period, as well as investing $150 million in Apple.
Apple and Microsoft agreed to settle a long-running dispute over whether Microsoft's Windows operating system infringed on any of Apple's patents as part of the agreement. It was also announced that Apple would replace Netscape as Mac's default browser with Internet Explorer.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates appeared at the expo on-screen, further explaining Microsoft's plans for the software they were developing for Mac, and stating that he was very excited to be helping Apple return to success. After this, Steve Jobs said this to the audience at the expo:
If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job.
And if others are going to help us that's great, because we need all the help we can get, and if we screw up and we don't do a good job, it's not somebody else's fault, it's our fault. So I think that is a very important perspective. If we want Microsoft Office on the Mac, we better treat the company that puts it out with a little bit of gratitude; we'd like their software.
So, the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I'm concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy, this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry and to get healthy and prosper again.
PAST GREATS
RUTHERFORD HAYES (1822 – 1893)
He was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th President of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after previously serving in the United States House of Representatives. Prior to the American Civil War, Hayes was a lawyer and staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court.
He left a promising political career to join the Union Army as an officer at the start of the American Civil War. Hayes was wounded five times. He rose through the ranks as a result of his combat bravery and was promoted to major general.
Before becoming president, he also served in distinguished legal, military and congressional posts, and was governor of Ohio and served three terms. After winning the presidency in one of the most contentious elections in American history, he led the country through the end of
Reconstruction before resigning after only one term.
Hayes secured a victory when a
Congressional Commission awarded him 20 contested electoral votes in the
Compromise of 1877. The electoral tussle was settled in a backroom deal in which the southern Democrats agreed to Hayes' election on the condition that he end federal support for
Reconstruction as well as military occupation in the former
Confederate States.
Historians and scholars generally
rank Hayes as an average to below-average president.
Business & Startups
TalentQL
TalentQL is an African-focused talent outsourcing and incubator company which hires, develops and manages remote talent for companies globally.
TalentQL wants to build a pipeline of quality talents for African companies as well as source and manage top local talents for leading international companies right from Nigeria.
TalentQL is fast becoming a global startup with footprints in Nigeria, Rwanda, the US, and Canada.
To see what’s in the works with TalentQL, visit their
website.
Random Facts
Back in 2008, the queen visited Google, and the Royal Family even shared a video of the visit on their official YouTube page.
Link
Tweet of The Week
Enjoy your weekend.