Apple recently celebrated its 50th birthday and at this milestone, we are looking back at one of those turbulent times when the company faced existential crises. During an interview with Axios around the release of his memoir, Source Code, last year, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates revisited one of the most famous turning points in corporate history: the day Microsoft saved Apple.
How Microsoft saved Apple in 1997
Among the other things, the conversation touched on Microsoft’s pivotal role in saving Apple from bankruptcy in 1997, when it invested in the struggling company and pledged support. Gates said he has no regrets about the move.“It was good that Apple recovered and made incredible contributions,” he said. Fifty years on, that intervention looks like one of the most consequential decisions in the history of the technology industry.“Once you get to the mobile thing, then Apple becomes every bit as important as Microsoft. It wasn’t up until then. They were more of a niche,” he added.However, Gates admitted that selling Microsoft’s 5% stake in Apple, acquired as part of the deal, was a mistake. “I wish we’d maintained that 5% ownership. It was foolish, foolish to sell it, but when we’re worrying about all sorts of antitrust things, we sold it for what now looks like nothing. And we owned part of Facebook for a while, too,” he added.
Gates says he had ‘wizard-like’ relationship with late Steve Jobs
Gates also talked about his complex, “wizard-like” relationship with late Steve Jobs. Gates did not hold back when describing Jobs, calling him a “singular figure” unlike anyone else in the industry.“He should have been an actor. He really ran the reality distortion field like no one else,” Gates said.He recalled telling Jobs directly: “Look, I’m a minor wizard. You’re a major wizard. You can cast spells I can’t cast — but because I’m a minor wizard, your spells don’t work on me. I see the bullshit, that you’re just mesmerising these people.”Gates also remembered pulling no punches when Jobs unveiled the NeXT computer — the machine Jobs built after being ousted from Apple in the 1980s that ultimately struggled in the market. Gates told him bluntly at the time: “This thing is a slow, expensive computer with an overpriced black case.”
