Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
No, sorry, the idea that this is not a purchase is just flatly wrong.
Giving someone the opportunity to buy your stock before you go public can have tremendous value. Particularly in the case of Apple, which was the largest personal computer maker at the time. (Due to the Apple II).
Xerox allowed Apple access to PARC *in exchange for* the opportunity to buy stock at the pre-ipo price. Apple gave Xerox something of value and Xerox gave Apple something of value. That's what a purchase is.
I'm not sure what the relevance of Xerox's suit is here - the court dismissed it.
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I'm not sure how you arrive at "flatly wrong" since Xerox clearly didn't think they sold it. As far as the value of the stock, that's never guaranteed. Don't forget only a few years later Apple almost went under. And the judge who dismissed the suit never ruled on the merits of the claims. He dismissed them for technical reasons related to where and how they were filed. And Apple never claimed that they had bought the technology. They claimed that ideas were not protected by copyright. Here's a good article from back in the day:
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/24/bu...anted=2&src=pm