> Back in '97, Microsoft invested 150m into Apple as well as published office on macs. This was very likely an effort to keep a competitor alive to pretend windows was not a monopoly.
> Mozilla is in a much worse position than Apple was in '97.
Indeed. In fact, Apple was in no short or medium term danger when they got the $150 million from Microsoft. They had at the time around $1.2 billion in cash reserves.
Getting Office on Mac was probably far more important to Apple than the cash. The deal guaranteed Microsoft would support Office on Mac for at least five years.
Microsoft got more out of it than just looking a little better to antitrust regulators. Part of the deal was that Apple would drop its lawsuit alleging that Microsoft had copied large parts of the look and feel of the Mac GUI. That had been going on for many years.
> Mozilla is in a much worse position than Apple was in '97.
Indeed. In fact, Apple was in no short or medium term danger when they got the $150 million from Microsoft. They had at the time around $1.2 billion in cash reserves.
Getting Office on Mac was probably far more important to Apple than the cash. The deal guaranteed Microsoft would support Office on Mac for at least five years.
Microsoft got more out of it than just looking a little better to antitrust regulators. Part of the deal was that Apple would drop its lawsuit alleging that Microsoft had copied large parts of the look and feel of the Mac GUI. That had been going on for many years.