Former Sun CEOs recount plan to buy Apple in 1995

At a recent Churchill Club dinner in California, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy and former Sun CEO Ed Zander spoke candidly about Sun during its heyday in the 90s when it was poised to buy the then-struggling Apple.

Michael Spindler headed Apple at that point, and the company was on the downswing. It had licensed the Mac OS to Radius and Power Computing, faced the looming threat of Windows 95, and launched the ill-fated PowerBook 5300. Regarded as one of the worst Apple products of all-time, the 5300 was prone to catching fire due to a defective Sony battery and earned the nickname HindenBook.

Zander recalls the day when the leading server and enterprise company was hours away from buying Apple for about $5 to $6 a share. Sun was geared up to announce its acquisition at an upcoming analysts meeting, but an Apple investment banker got in the company's way at the last minute. McNealy says, "We wanted to do it. There was an investment banker on the Apple side, an absolute disaster, and he basically blocked it. He put so many terms into the deal that we couldn't afford to go do it."

This unnamed banker unknowingly changed the future of Apple. If Apple was acquired, would Sun have developed the iPod, iPhone and iPad? "No," said McNealy, "If we had bought Apple, there wouldn't have been iPods or iPads ... I'd have screwed that up."

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Source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/How-Apple-Dodged-…

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At a recent Churchill Club dinner in California, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy and former Sun CEO Ed Zander spoke candidly about...

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Hagar Viking

Yeah Scott is a nice guy still. That was before Job's return with NextStep which becomes OSX that cured Apple's fortune.

If Sun were to buy Apple then, they would put Solaris as the core OS and slap that OS9 UI over it hoping to "cover" their bases. This would run that old Apple to the ground before even the Sparc chip sees the Apple enclosure!.

Meanwhile, Jobs would probably have bought Power Computing, gradually license NextStep to the consumer PC and have ipods and iwrist-watches and i3D-Glasses etc.

Sun would have died 3 years later, had it purchased Apple then ....

February 27 2011 at 8:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bill

Kudos to McNealy for candidness. A quite admirable quality rarely found in many executive suites.

February 27 2011 at 6:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hellohogo

Investment banker = time traveler.

February 27 2011 at 4:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

exnewt

Yeah, I remember when I too thought of buying Apple...

February 27 2011 at 10:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris Preimesberger

Zander wasn't the one who said he'd "screw up" iPads and iPods if Sun had bought Apple. McNealy said that, in front of hundreds of people at the dinner. Zander was the Sun CEO at the time and was about the make the announcement, is all. For the record: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/How-Apple-Dodged-a-Sun-Buyout-Former-CEOs-McNealy-Zander-Tell-All-251679/

February 27 2011 at 10:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

glad

Thank god that didn't happen as there'd be no Apple as we know it today!! Whoever that Apple investment banker was can someone do some detective work find him and give him a medal. At this moment however every investment banker who ever worked for Apple will say "it was me" lol

February 27 2011 at 9:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to glad's comment

SIP

Just a medal? I say give them a shares worth $10million.

February 27 2011 at 2:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

pancakesandbeer

LOL. "I'd have screwed that up." CEOs are rarely that modest. Must be a nice guy.

February 27 2011 at 9:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply