Agreed; the title of the article is linkbait at best. This is far less "patent pressure" and more an appeal to a long-time colleague to lay down arms because it was a lose-lose for everyone. For Jobs, it was more of a concession that though he knew he was in a fight that he couldn't win. Truthfully, I find that story far more interesting and compelling than the ridiculous assertion that this was a form of "patent pressure."

It's about par for the course around here. You'll similarly see headlines about patents that were won (that were really filed) and acquisitions that happened (that were merely discussed).

This is all in addition to the usual link-baity headlines such as "Plan to FAIL!,", "How being lazy made me a millionaire," etc. etc.

The context that is missing is there was a DOJ lawsuit against MS at the time. MS needed someone propped up as slight competitor..hence the deal as otherwise MS could have just waited until Apple ran out of money and their patent problem would be solved.

The quote might be wishful thinking

Apple's patents would have be auctioned in bankruptcy; perhaps to Sun, IBM, Oracle, or Microsoft themselves. Might have gone for more than the Apple investment.