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If Apple went Chapter 11, what would happen to OS X

H

hugodrax

macrumors 65816
Original poster
The operating system is key here, very powerful and what powers so many Apple products, it would be sad to see it go the way of other great techs.

Would Microsoft buy OS X, dump windows and make it the primary OS with legacy windows based os running in VM?

Would it become an OSS product?

Would a hardware company scoop it up and offer it?
 
I don't know how to take this...

Is this a serious inquiry? Why do you think Apple could go Chapter 11? The company is thriving.

I think that when a company goes that route, their assets are sold off, and OS X would surely be worth a lot of money, as would all their other corporate assets. I can't see Apple *staying* in Chapter 11 very long, if it did end up there, so it's not even much to speculate on.

Tom
 
hugodrax said:
The operating system is key here, very powerful and what powers so many Apple products, it would be sad to see it go the way of other great techs.

Would Microsoft buy OS X, dump windows and make it the primary OS with legacy windows based os running in VM?

Would it become an OSS product?

Would a hardware company scoop it up and offer it?
Click to expand...

I think you mean of Chapter 7 bankruptcy, where the company has no intention of continuing operations and its assets are liquidated to pay off its creditors. That would be the worst case scenario, and very troubling indeed.

In which case, I doubt MS could takeover Apple w/o running seriously afoul of the anti-trust laws (unless, god forbid, we have another 8 years of Republican rule). I'm sure if they could, MS would dump OS X entirely.

As for open-sourcing it, half or more of OS X is open source, i.e. Darwin. Most of the remainder evolved from NEXTstep.
 
Apple has been growing tremendously over the last several years. I don't think we have anything to worry about. Especially with Steve Jobs at the helm, even if Apple went down the drain, Jobs would claim OS X and run off and start a new company with it. Or something.
 
With luck, Apple would just open source it all before declaring bankruptcy.. Sure it could be considered defrauding creditors, but they could argue against it😉
 
Amiga would buy it...

Demo a grand new Amiga interface as they remake it into Amiga OS, go bankrupt again, release the beta in 3 years and the final release a couple bankruptcies/years later.

---

I don't think they would follow the current Amiga OS path, which is still fighting for life and being developed.
 
Apple has $16 billion in cash reserves, and zero debt. Even if something catastrophic happened to the company today, they still aren't going anywhere for a very, very long time.
 
kuwisdelu said:
Apple has been growing tremendously over the last several years. I don't think we have anything to worry about. Especially with Steve Jobs at the helm, even if Apple went down the drain, Jobs would claim OS X and run off and start a new company with it. Or something.
Click to expand...
I don't think Jobs has much legal right to just claim OS X as his own and run off with it.
 
Stupid premise. Apple are going nowhere. They have no creditors, billions in the bank, and record profits coming in every quarter 😕

You may as well ask what would happen to GMail if Google went under tomorrow...
 
In which alternate universe do you propose would this happen?

And I think you don't actually now what "Chapter 11" means. Do a bit of googling to find the difference between "Chapter 11" and "Chapter 7".

ayeying said:
Whats chapter 11?
Click to expand...

"Chapter 11" and "Chapter 7" refer to US bankruptcy laws.

When a company gets into financial trouble and can't pay its bills, it can put itself under the protection of Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy laws. That means that the company operates under supervision of the bankruptcy court, but on the other hand it is protected from creditors. That makes it possible for a company to reorganize and continue business if it has a viable business. So "under Chapter 11" means: Company can't pay its bills, but hopes to get back on track.

"Chapter 7" is about proper bankruptcy, where all assets of a company are sold, the money is distributed among creditors, and then the company is closed down.
 
dynamicv said:
Stupid premise. Apple are going nowhere. They have no creditors, billions in the bank, and record profits coming in every quarter 😕

You may as well ask what would happen to GMail if Google went under tomorrow...
Click to expand...

Exactly. Apple has ZERO debt, and billions in cash.

A more likely scenario is the MS attempt to buy yahoo. Hope that goes the way of AOL.
 
motulist said:
Apple has $16 billion in cash reserves, and zero debt. Even if something catastrophic happened to the company today, they still aren't going anywhere for a very, very long time.
Click to expand...
No debt? What does their ROA look like?

EDIT: Answered my own question.

.14 for apple compared to MS' .22
 
Quillz said:
I don't think Jobs has much legal right to just claim OS X as his own and run off with it.
Click to expand...

I know. But who knows, maybe he could buy it. Or start another NeXTStep and come up with something even better!

Either way, we have nothing to worry about.
 
kuwisdelu said:
I know. But who knows, maybe he could buy it. Or start another NeXTStep and come up with something even better!

Either way, we have nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...
He could theoretically buy Apple's technology, such as Quartz, Aqua, QuickTime, etc. but he could never buy Darwin and the underlying Mac kernel, which is open source. The licensing forbids it.
 
Borrowing from the hypothetical, I think if OSX was no longer available, I'd return to pen, paper, and snail mail.
 
Quillz said:
He could theoretically buy Apple's technology, such as Quartz, Aqua, QuickTime, etc. but he could never buy Darwin and the underlying Mac kernel, which is open source. The licensing forbids it.
Click to expand...

That only means there's no reason to buy those parts, and could be used anyway.
 
Obviously Apple is not going anywhere but since OS X is such a nice operating system I would venture Microsoft would buy it, dump windows. Sell OS X and stick windows in a virtual for legacy.
 
hugodrax said:
Obviously Apple is not going anywhere but since OS X is such a nice operating system I would venture Microsoft would buy it, dump windows. Sell OS X and stick windows in a virtual for legacy.
Click to expand...

C'mon, do you really think Steve Ballmer would allow that to happen?
 
hugodrax said:
Obviously Apple is not going anywhere but since OS X is such a nice operating system I would venture Microsoft would buy it, dump windows. Sell OS X and stick windows in a virtual for legacy.
Click to expand...

I agree with the above post. Microsoft is far too stubborn to use OS X. They would never admit it's better, let alone use it. If they bought it, it would only to make sure no one else could use it. If anything, I think Microsoft would go down long before Apple, which isn't to say Microsoft is weak (I think both will be here for a long time). It's just that Macs have a loyal following because it's a great operating system; Windows have a massive, sheepish following because it's so available that it's the default OS used by computer manufacturers and bought by big businesses.

If something like that did ever happen, and no one from Apple bought it and started a new company with it--and unless MS bought it just to get rid of it--I think a company like Google, IBM, Sony, [insert technological company] which doesn't have its own operating system would buy it as an entrance into the business.
 
hugodrax said:
The operating system is key here, very powerful and what powers so many Apple products, it would be sad to see it go the way of other great techs.

Would Microsoft buy OS X, dump windows and make it the primary OS with legacy windows based os running in VM?

Would it become an OSS product?

Would a hardware company scoop it up and offer it?
Click to expand...

Two words: Open Source.

End of discusion.

TEG
 
OSX could go open source, heck, it can even run on regular PC's if it didn't check for Apple chips somewhere in the code.

Anyway, I don't think Apple is at any risk right now but unlike MS and Gates, a lot of Apple's success stems from Jobs. He won't live forever and if something happens to him sooner than later, they may lose focus. There isn't anybody quite like Jobs (except Ive maybe) and without him, Apple might be in trouble going forward.
 
I like these threads where someone asks an interesting yet highly unlikely question, then the posters tear it apart. Mainly because I don't have the balls to ask questions like this on this board.😱😀
 
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