[simonh]

>But the asshole vibe from Jobs comes from the fact that he clearly didn't value the feature that much.

Why is not valuing the feature that much an asshole move?

I'm sure you'll figure out a way somehow. It's amazing how far people will bend themselves out of shape over Steve Jobs.

[mattbee]

No strong feelings on Jobs, but quite a few people here commenting it was sharp practice, and I understand why.

Of course it's reasonable for anyone in business to say "you're trying to bullshit me, so I'm not doing business with you". The OP agrees, end of story.

But - Jobs might have batted away OP's amateur bravado with grace, and still bought his company for any price he wanted (probably even less than it would have cost Apple to build!). Or he could have passed them over to a subordinate be let down.

Instead Jobs personally wanted to be known for cruel honesty, and for ordering a clone of a startup that he'd changed his mind about buying. I genuinely don't know whether he succeeded because or in spite of that kind of conduct.

[silexia]

Building the feature probably took a few engineers a couple of months. That's a lot cheaper than 50 million dollars.

[ricardobeat]

Why would he do business with someone who had just lost his trust? You wouldn’t want to acqui-hire that team.

[solarkraft]

I think the commenter means that Jobs behaved how he did because he didn't intend to do business with them on their terms.