"Who are our customers? our competitors? What is NeXT's 'compelling advantage'?," he asked. NeXT was genuinely surprised when they did this exercise in the summer of 1991, and Steve now presented NeXT's answers. The first group of customers (*the one Steve is most enamored of) is Financial Services, which was SUN's first commercial market. He listed Phibro Energy, First National Bank of Chicago, Swiss Bank/O'Connor (previously SUN's largest site), Union Bank of Switzerland, JP Morgan, and TRIMARK as installations with triple- digit commitments to NeXT. Second was Government, at all levels. DoD, Navy,DARPA (which bought one for every Principal Investigator), the City of Baltimore, and the LA Sherriff's Department were all mentioned as significant customers. Unmentioned were NSA and the CIA.

H. Ross Perot, founder of the Electronic Data Systems Corporation, is investing $20 million for a 16 percent stake and a director's position in Next Inc., according to an article in the Feb. 9 issue of Business Week. Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple Computer Inc., formed Next in 1985 to produce a powerful computer work station for educational use.

H. Ross Perot, founder of the Electronic Data Systems Corporation, is investing $20 million for a 16 percent stake and a director's position in Next Inc., according to an article in the Feb. 9 issue of Business Week. Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple Computer Inc., formed Next in 1985 to produce a powerful computer work station for educational use.

In a stunning move, Apple Computer (AAPL) said tonight that it will purchase Next Software in a $400 million deal that will bring former Apple CEO Steve Jobs back to the company he cofounded.

Apple will pay about $350 million in cash and stock for the privately held Next to purchase that company's shares and an additional $50 million to cover its debts.