<story><title>How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M</title><url>https://blog.zamzar.com/2016/06/10/deal-of-the-century-how-microsoft-beat-apple-to-buy-powerpoint-for-14-million/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>chime</author><text>Random trivia for tech history buffs: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Forethought,_Inc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Forethought,_Inc&lt;/a&gt;. under founder Rob Campbell sold PowerPoint to MS and FileMaker to Apple.&lt;p&gt;Of course everyone knows PowerPoint but even most techies today have never touched FileMaker - it was the Django&amp;#x2F;Rails&amp;#x2F;WordPress&amp;#x2F;SquareSpace&amp;#x2F;RAD application back in the day. At a time when very few could code, FileMaker let anyone create a full-featured database. And even today, if you are running a small business and want basic data-collection features for internal use, it is still relevant and useful: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.filemaker.com&amp;#x2F;solutions&amp;#x2F;starter-solutions.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.filemaker.com&amp;#x2F;solutions&amp;#x2F;starter-solutions.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;90% of &amp;quot;please make me a typical DB app&amp;quot; requests I get, I just point them to FileMaker. I say spend $75&amp;#x2F;mo for 5 users for a couple of months to work out the process. If the process works and the pain-point is FileMaker, come back to me and I will make a custom solution.</text></comment>
<story><title>How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M</title><url>https://blog.zamzar.com/2016/06/10/deal-of-the-century-how-microsoft-beat-apple-to-buy-powerpoint-for-14-million/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>martin-adams</author><text>I think it&amp;#x27;s so ironic that the first version of Powerpoint was for Mac which ended up helping give Windows it&amp;#x27;s name when running Office.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve seen Powerpoint used for so many crazy things.  Most notably non-technical managers designing a UI in Powerpoint. It&amp;#x27;s just one of those, lets just get the job done pieces of software.</text></comment>