[jaysonelliot]

Very much so. There were two primary candidates in the running, NeXT and Be Inc., run by Jean-Louis Gassée, previously the president of Apple Europe.

Some very strong arguments have been made for why BeOS would have been a better choice for Apple at the time, but the truth is that Be was always a second choice for Apple if NeXT could not be acquired.

Apple got a great two for one deal by acquiring both a solid UNIX-based foundation for their future and Steve Jobs, but Jobs was really the crown jewel. Apple was in a terrible position at the time, and most industry watchers didn't expect them to survive.

WIRED ran their famous "101 Ways to Save Apple" cover story around that time, and Michael Dell made his infamous quote that Apple should "shut down and give the money back to the shareholders."

It really was a bleak time, and a technology solution was only part of what Apple needed. Steve Jobs' return was what the acquisition was ultimately about.

[reaperducer]

1990something: >Michael Dell made his infamous quote that Apple should "shut down and give the money back to the shareholders."

2017: Who's Michael Dell?

Steve Jobs is better known dead than Michael Dell is alive.

[favorited]

Steve emailed Apple employees in 06, saying:

> It turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today.

[geesejuggler]

> Michael Dell made his infamous quote that Apple should "shut down and give the money back to the shareholders."

In a bizarre turn of events, he took Dell (the company) off the stock market himself making it non-publicly owned.

[robotresearcher]

> 2017: Who's Michael Dell?

He's a guy worth $23.5B (says Google today).

Dell may not be very exciting, but Michael Dell is doing fine.

[eloisant]

Don't forget that Dell still has twice the market share of Apple on laptops. Apple is successful today because of the iPhone, but Dell is still doing great.

[jaysonelliot]

Their market cap is $24 billion, while Apple is at $900 billion, and is in the race to become the world's first trillion-dollar company.

Even Acer (remember them) is worth almost 3x what Dell is today.