The year is 1985 and Steve Jobs is in trouble, after hiring Sculley as new CEO of Apple he began to enter a struggle over power in an attempt to regain control over his beloved Apple. In a move that was strange to Jobs he was banished to the distant office known as “Siberia” and it didn’t take long before he left…

$7 million and seven employees later Steve Jobs had a new interest, NeXT Computer. They originally worked on PostScript like technologies, working closely with Adobe but they soon found direction. It didn’t take long before Apple targeted a lawsuit at NeXT and in January of 1986 it was agreed that NeXT would be restricted to the workstation market.
NeXT Screenshot
NeXT was overall a successful company, the company had good hardware sales for some years but was especially prevalent in the software market, NeXTSTEP was the name of the Operating System and some say it has strong resemblance to OS X, not only was NeXTSTEP an Operating System ahead of its time but NeXT Computer was constantly pushing new technologies including WorldWideWeb the first web browser, although it was a third party application, NeXT was an ideal platform for developers with its object orientated programming and simplistic OS.
NeXT Computer
But things at NeXT soon began to slide and on December 20 1996 Apple announced it would be acquiring NeXT Software for $400 million, most of that in cash! Apple had an idea, they wanted to use NeXTSTEP as the foundation for its outdated Mac OS.

Here is an extract from the original press release;

CUPERTINO, Calif.–Dec. 20, 1996–Apple Computer, Inc. today announced its intention to purchase NeXT Software Inc., in a friendly acquisition for $400 million. Pending regulatory approvals, all NeXT products, services, and technology research will become part of Apple Computer, Inc. As part of the agreement, Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO of NeXT Software, will return to Apple–the company he co-founded in 1976–reporting to Dr. Gilbert F. Amelio, Apple’s Chairman and CEO.

The acquisition will bring together Apple’s and NeXT’s innovative and complementary technology portfolios and significantly strengthens Apple’s position as a company advancing industry standards. Apple’s leadership in ease-of-use and multimedia solutions will be married to NeXT’s strengths in development software and operating environments for both the enterprise and Internet markets. NeXT’s object oriented software development products will contribute to Apple’s goal of creating a differentiated and profitable software business, with a wide range of products for enterprise, business, education, and home markets.

It was a great move for Jobs putting him in a position on the board again and not long after he was in the position of Interim CEO. A few months later 9 years ago today Apple Completed its purchase of NeXT and the future of Apple was set in stone, with Steve Jobs at the head again Apple soon took a foot hold and has been climbing to the stop ever since.