We all do crazy things from time to time. After all, “we’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy.” But sometimes those crazy things that we do might affect our very ability to survive.

Check out: Microsoft invested in Apple in 1997: ‘It might have been the craziest thing we ever did’

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Listen

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Glossary

• (on the) brink (of) – a crucial or critical point, especially of a situation or state beyond which success or catastrophe occurs
• commend – praise formally or officially
• default – a preselected option adopted by a computer program or other mechanism when no alternative is specified by the user or programmer
• big fish – an important or influential person
• dead duck – a person or thing that is defunct or has no chance of success
• the likes of sb – people similiar to sb
• sweep the leg out from under sb – when you do whatever you have to do to win
• go from strength to strength – to become better and better or more and more successful

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Think about it

Answer the questions below.

• What do the numbers 1997, 150, 3, 700, 247 refer to?
• What was the official version of why Microsoft invested in Apple in 1997?
• What was the true story behind the 1997 deal?
• Who was the dead duck, and who was the big fish back in 1997?
• Why do Ballmer’s words seem to be “somewhat of an understatement?”

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Practice makes perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words.

• Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted that Microsoft was crazy to invest in Apple back in 1997 when the brand was on the ________ of bankruptcy.
• The 1997 deal came within weeks of Apple facing bankruptcy and was announced as ________of a broad patent cross-licensing agreement and a promise from Microsoft to provide its Office software to Macs in exchange for Internet Explorer being the ________browser on Apple’s machines.
• For millennials who couldn’t possibly comprehend a world where Apple didn’t rule it was a period of PC boom and Microsoft was the big ________.
• While Microsoft thought the $150m investment was a smart legal move to help a potential ________ duck who posed no threat, they didn’t count on ________ likes of Steve Jobs.
• From here Apple moved from strength to ________ with the creation of the iPhone and iPad, which revolutionised personal computing habits and swept the ________ out from under Microsoft. The rest is history.

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