The Deal That Almost Killed Microsoft

What if one contract error nearly erased Microsoft before it ever became powerful?

In 1980, Microsoft was small, fragile, and replaceable.
No operating system. No leverage. Fewer than fifty employees.
One bad assumption by the most powerful tech company on Earth could have ended everything.

That assumption came from IBM.

When IBM entered the personal computer market, they believed software was secondary.
Hardware was where the value lived.
So instead of buying an operating system outright, they licensed it — without exclusivity.

That single decision handed Microsoft the future.

Microsoft kept ownership of MS-DOS.
They licensed it again and again to every IBM-compatible computer maker that followed.
While IBM built the machine, Microsoft quietly captured the standard.

The result wasn’t immediate.
But once compatibility became more valuable than hardware, control shifted — permanently.

This episode of MISSED BILLIONS explores how a deal meant to keep Microsoft small ended up creating the most powerful software empire in history — and why IBM never recovered control of the PC industry.

🎬 The series where we uncover billion-dollar mistakes, missed opportunities, and the business decisions that reshaped the world.

⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 – IBM’S MOMENT OF POWER
01:00 – A SMALL COMPANY CALLED MICROSOFT
02:20 – THE LICENSING DECISION
03:40 – THE HIDDEN RISK
05:10 – CLONES CHANGE EVERYTHING
06:40 – THE SHIFT IN POWER
07:40 – THE BILLION-DOLLAR LESSON

#MissedBillions #BusinessHistory #Microsoft

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📘 Recommended reading:
The Innovator’s Dilemma — Amazon US: https://amzn.to/4orUBQy