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Re:Steve Jobs used patents to pressure Bill Gates into 1997 ... by shareme on Friday March 02, 2012 @01:49PM (#3657779)
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

Re:Steve Jobs used patents to pressure Bill Gates into 1997 ... by cma on Friday March 02, 2012 @03:14PM (#3658165)
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.