They were caught with their fingers in the cookie jar, stealing proprietary intellectual property, something that was not new with them. The purchase of the stock was NOT to bail out Apple... it was to settle a lawsuit that would have cost them billions... and probably would have required them to disclose proprietary secrets of their own.
By establishing the myth that they were merely bailing Apple out, who didn't need bailing out at that time, they make themselves look better... and spread FUD about Apple at the same time. Why do you think this false story is repeated over and over again despite the facts being easily determined?
To this day you see reports that "Microsoft bought 10% of Apple" and that "Bill Gates owns Apple" and that "Apple was about to declare bankruptcy when MS saved them." I have posted the facts numerous times WITH SOURCES on FreeRepublic and still it comes up. It's a MYTH, Discostu!
I have Parallels and VMWare on my Macs had have used both (in production and test) a lot.
Observations. All of the windows apps I have tried have better or equivalent Mac OS products - to my tastes. Both Paralllels and VMWare work very well with a few exceptions (USB support is not perfect.)
The only reason, besides curiosity, I keep them on my Macs and the most legitimate complaint widows users have, or should have, about Mac inferiority is the real nasty truth that many, many websites use special IE features and plugins.
Far to often, in order to do my job, and even to keep my farm running, I have to fire up IE in windows.
I’d say the proliferation of Windows only websites is AAPL’s soft underbelly and I have had conversations with senior AAPL officials and they really don’t give a crap - frustrating.
I never said Bill owned Apple, I never said MS owned 10%, I said they gave them a bunch of money, which they did. There is no myth there. Try not to ass-u-me, stick with what I said not what you wish I said.