Little Ironies Involving Microsoft, Apple, Dell
Bangalore: Dell is to go private with $24.4 billion deal, and the occasion calls to recall a little ironic past that involved Microsoft, Apple and Dell, reports Los Angeles Times.
It was obvious fact that Microsoft and Apple were arch rivals, but things took an unexpected turn on August 6, 1997. At the Macworld conference in Boston, Apple's interim chief executive, Steve Jobs, takes the stage to make a stunning announcement.
The rival Microsoft had thrown a life line to Apple by agreeing to invest $150 million to keep the company afloat. A huge image of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates adores the gigantic video screen behind Jobs, as audience gasp, "We have to let go of a few notions here," he said that day. "We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft needs to lose."
About two months later, young and brash Michael Dell, CEO of Dell, offered a now infamous assessment on what he would do if he were running then troubled Apple. "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Dell said.
Fickle fingers of fate played on, and after a little more than 15 years, world has turned upside down for Dell, and Michael Dell, is to execute his own infamous assessment on Apple, onto his own company. On Tuesday he announced that his company is to go private with $24.4 billion deal, which means he’s giving back the shareholders’ money.
So in this hour of need, Dell knocked on Microsoft’s doors for bail out, as it seems to be out of habit, the Redmond based company is again to play a rescuing angel; it offering $2 billion bailout money to Dell.
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