15 Jun
2018
15 Jun
'18
9:25 p.m.
From: "John P. Linderman"
4 bucks a bit!
When IBM went to license the core patent(s?) from MIT, they offered MIT a
choice of a large lump sump (the number US$20M sticks in my mind), or US$.01 a
bit.
The negotiators from MIT took the lump sum.
When I first heard this story, I thought it was corrupt folklore, but I later
found it in one of the IBM histories.
This story repets itself over and over again, though: one of the Watson's
saying there was a probably market for <single-digit> of computers; Ken Olsen
saying people wouldn't want computers in their homes; etc, etc.
Noel