[smacktoward]

That came much later: the Microsoft investment was announced in 1997, at Steve Jobs' first keynote after returning to Apple.

[cms07]

But regardless, I think Apple could have easily ended up just the same as the others without it.

[macintux]

The "bailout" was a payoff for IP infringement and was small potatoes, something like $150 million.

[rstupek]

Assuming you mean the Mac IP and if so I believe Microsoft had a cross licensing deal in place which would cover it. It never got to litigation though.