Recently, new information about the business policies made by Microsoft has become known.
Documentary evidence shows that Microsoft considered abandoning the Mac version of Office in order to do “great harm” to Apple.
An internal memo sent by Microsoft founder Bill Gates to the head of the Mac Business Unit (MBU), Bend Waldman, and dated June 1997 talks about morale in the development area of ​​Office for Mac.
On that date, Microsoft’s senior manager was considering the possibility of abandoning Mac support. The email message refers to the low sales of Office.
Product development neglect is also described as “The cheapest way to do immediate harm to Apple.”
The document also confirms that Microsoft saw the Mac version of Office as an opportunity to test new product features before they made their appearance on Windows, “since it is less business-critical compared to Windows.”
The full document is available here in PDF format.
