Does Microsoft really own part of Apple??

Apple and Microsoft signed a deal back in like 2000 that said that Microsoft would continue to develop Office for the Mac in exchange for a percentage of non-voting stock in Apple.

 

What it said was that they bought shares of Apple stock to make it a viable company. The shares were non-voting and have since been sold back to Apple.

 

But does that mean no more office for mac?

 

Nope.

MS doesn't own one red cent of Apple now and last year the two companies signed a deal promising development of Office:mac in exchange for reasonable access to new Apple technologies for the next 5 years.

All is well.

 

Pirates of Silicon Valley is a fairly old movie. Back around 1997, Microsoft bought $150 million non-voting Apple stock. At the time, Apple's cash reserves were $4 billion. That Microsoft stock buy was a public declaration of confidence in Apple, but it represented about 4% of Apple's cash reserves and a drop in the bucket of Apple's total value. The purchase was part of a let's-stop-fighting-and-do-business agreement between Apple and Microsoft. Long before the end of the five-year term of the agreement, Microsoft sold its Apple stock at a profit. Currently, Apple and Microsoft have a follow-up five-year agreement. Make no mistake, Microsoft does not produce Office:mac because it has an agreement with Apple. It produces Office:mac because the suite is highly profitable.

 

so what's the big deal? the "public enemy" has invested in apple in the past. so what? what may seem shocking is rather quite common. consider that intel has invested in amd. in japan most companies are also invested in their rivals.

 

It's also a fairly inaccurate movie.

The $150 million investment was a part of the settlement of a long-running patent dispute between Apple and Microsoft. It's not really known for certain when or even if Microsoft sold the shares, but it seems likely that they divested them at their earliest opportunity.

The $4 billion figure was I believe roughly Apple's market capitalization in 1997. They had about $1.2 billion cash on hand at the time.