You mean when NeXT bought Apple and forced Apple to finance the deal.

A.K.A. that time when Steve Jobs acqui-hired Apple.

Apple looked at it as an acquisition, while NeXT looked at it as a merger.

NeXT didn’t buy Apple obviously, but Steve Jobs and his lieutenants took over the most important positions within Apple.

Which made sense given the situation Apple found itself in.

For sure, it was pretty clearly the right call at the time and objectively so with the benefit of hindsight. But BeOS was just too good to be allowed (forced, really) to die on the vine the way that it did.

No need for hindsight. BeOS is still alive. A Haiku for you.