Yep, if you wanted to move to MSFT from LinkedIn or vice versa, you needed to re-interview although finding a job rec and internal hiring manager was easier.
That was 33 years ago. What's the point of lingering on a potential parallel there? If it does go that way, how could you call it anything but a coincidence considering all the counter examples in Microsoft's history?
Sorry I should have phrased that as starting in 1990...
In 1990 they poached Brad Silverberg who then spent the next 7 years poaching all of Borland's top talent in the most prominent example of a competitive 'brain drain' strategy that I'm aware of.
I worked with Delphi for many years, and from what I saw Borland dug their own grave. I did commercial work with Turbo Pascal last century, and I can say that even that far back Borland was run horribly. And they've gone a long way downhill since 2000 (I have a friend still using Delphi and Embarcadero is terrible). Microsoft with VB spanked Delphi 2 (a Borland highlight) back in mid 90s.
I really think you don't know what you are talking about. Delphi 7 was released in 2002 and you were "in high school in the early 2000s". We all love a good narrative, but yours has no base to belong to.
We got Access, Visual Studio, and .Net / C# as a direct result.
Borland faded into obscurity.
Hard not to feel like there will be a parallel here.