Who helped Apple come back to life 20 years ago? It was Microsoft!

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I'm afraid you will be surprised to see this title: Anyone who knows Microsoft knows that Apple is Microsoft's rival - this is not just the threat to Microsoft from the current Apple empire with iPhone, iPad, and iMac. Going back to 30 years ago, when the two companies were founded, they were already fighting for the future of personal computers. Why would such a pair of enemies help each other "extend life" when the other is on the verge of death?

Yet it is true. Although in an interview with Bloomberg, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said: "This may be the craziest thing Microsoft has ever done."

"In a way, you could say this is probably the craziest thing we've ever done. But, you know, they've used that capital very well, coupled with their incredible innovation, and they've now created the most valuable company in the world," Ballmer said, praising his rival. "They've done a phenomenal job. If you go back to 1997, when Jobs just came back, Apple was almost a bankrupt company. We invested in Apple at that time as part of settling our lawsuit."

Indeed, 1997 should be the moment when the gap between the two companies was the largest. That year, the release of the Pentium processor made the performance of PCs soar, and Windows and Office became industry standards. On the contrary, Apple suffered losses year after year. When Jobs returned to Apple, the company was only 90 days away from bankruptcy. Just like many people today view PCs, many people think that Apple has become a historical term.

(This is a report on Apple by Wired magazine at the time. The cover shows the Apple locked by two thorns, with the word "Pray" in large letters below.)

However, such an event ended with a dramatic announcement: On August 6, 1997, Microsoft announced that it would purchase $150 million worth of non-voting shares from Apple and develop Office software for the Macintosh platform. In return, Apple gave up the lawsuit against Microsoft and bundled the IE browser in every Mac OS operating system.

Of course, this time it was not free: what was not mentioned in the cooperation was that Apple would give up the lawsuit against Microsoft: in addition to the long-standing accusation that Microsoft copied Apple's graphics operating system, there was also an accusation that Microsoft bundled the IE browser with the operating system. Although this was just one of the many legal accusations Microsoft encountered at the time, this time, Microsoft chose to give in. Of course, from the perspective of hindsight, Microsoft could also choose not to give in and fight to the end, which might lead to more severe antitrust charges, but before the verdict came down, Apple, Microsoft's biggest enemy and Jobs' life's work, would disappear.

There is also a saying that this is a personal grudge between Gates and Jobs: As we all know, in the 1980s, Apple always had the upper hand over Microsoft in terms of graphical operating systems, and even Jobs had the upper hand over Gates in terms of personal charm and creativity. The two were also enemies and friends. Perhaps at this time, Gates personally wanted to prove to Jobs: What does it matter how talented you are? This time, I saved Apple.

In any case, this investment completely changed the history we see. After knowing that Microsoft invested in Apple, Apple's stock price rose and it was able to come back from the brink of death. Apple was able to break free from a series of unsuccessful hardware attempts before and created the iPod, and then the iPhone and iPad. You know what happened next - Apple now has a market value of 700 billion US dollars, while when Microsoft invested, it was only less than 3 billion US dollars.

Will Microsoft executives today regret their decision? If Microsoft falls today, will Apple lend a helping hand? No one knows. Perhaps some people will think that this story tells us that "there is no mercy in the world." But from another point of view, it is precisely because of these two companies that we have such a rich and diverse digital world today.

Why not merge and call it Microapple, Little Apple...