In 1997, a peculiar business deal went down.
To keep the then-fledgling Apple Computers from becoming a figment of Silicon Valley’s past, an unlikely investor breathed new life into Apple’s core through an investment of $150 million. This key investment allowed Apple and its newly returned CEO, Steve Jobs, to keep pushing, keep thinking and keep creating. The investor? CEO and founder of Microsoft, Apple’s largest competitor, Bill Gates. Jobs told the audience at MacWorld in Boston when the news went public, “We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft needs to lose.”
Both Jobs and Gates knew their companies stood a better chance at surviving and thriving with their competitor still making advances in the marketplace.
