

What's the shrewdest, smartest maneuver you've ever seen in business? - petsos
http://www.quora.com/Business/Whats-the-shrewdest-smartest-maneuver-youve-ever-seen-in-business/answer/David-Fry

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cwp
The deal Steve Jobs made with Microsoft after he came back to Apple.

The story is that MS had copied Quicktime code into Windows, and Apple had
proof. Job could have gone after MS and gotten cash—probably hundreds of
millions of dollars. Instead, he used the leverage to make peace, and change
the competitive dynamic between the two companies.

He did a patent cross-license, which pretty much eliminated the danger that
the two companies would battle each other in the courtroom. He got MS to
"invest" $150M, and commit to shipping Office for Mac for at least 5 more
years. He adopted IE5 as the official Mac web browser. And he got up on stage
at Macworld and publicly buried the hatchet with Microsoft: "We have to let go
of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose."

All of this diverted Apple from the impossible task of defeating Microsoft at
it's own game, licensing an operating system to PC makers. It reassured fans
of Apple products that Apple would be around for a while longer, and allowed
the company to sustain its self by selling to its existing market.

At the same time, it positioned Apple to adopt its digital hub strategy.
Rather than try to go toe-to-toe with Microsoft, it moved into the consumer
electronics space, and released iTunes for Windows. Rather than trying to make
the iPod strengthen the Mac ecosystem, Apple happily sold iPods to Windows
users.

The rest is history.

