NeXT did fail by most standards. It didn't turn profit and went out of business after a generation or so of products that failed to penetrate the market.

They ended up being the foundation of OS X and the box on which the web was invented. Even if NeXT failed as a company they're still a historic milestone.

NeXT was cheaper than BeOS, wasn't that a key thing?

Apple paid $429 million for NeXT. Be was offered $125 million but wanted $300 million.

if you've ever coded for iOS, the NS in all those objects and methods? it stands for NeXTStep

NeXT was bought by Apple for $400 million dollars and today NeXTStep is running on a billion Apple devices.

As some wag put it, NeXT bought Apple for $-400 million dollars.

(Assuming that's the figure, I don't remember myself.)

Without jobs, would it stilll happen?

No. Apple was completely lost before Jobs returned.

The hardware was a marketing mess, and the software was stuck in R&D hell with no prospect of escape.

There were some interesting ideas, but execution and management were all over the place.

I don't think Jobs is an example of survivor bias. I think Jobs was an extremely talented marketer with an unusual aesthetic sense.

Sociopaths are more likely to kill their companies than make them grow. They love drama, abuse, and terror for their own sake.

Jobs was more of a narcissist. He lacked empathy, but he wasn't constantly trying to destroy other people because he enjoyed it.

It was more that he knew what he wanted - his own vision of himself as a guru of consumer technology, aesthetics, and creativity - and he didn't care what it cost to get it.

Personal and business relationships were all disposable. The vision wasn't.

Unknown, but it's overstated how much of that $150 million cash injection actually helped.

It's more likely the undisclosed sum (well higher) that kept Apple from the brink of bankruptcy.

"I wonder what would have happened if Microsoft hadn't invested $150 million in Apple in 1997?"

But this was't completely luck. It was negotiated by Jobs.

They also provided office/IE for Mac at a time when that was really important.