Remember the great web browser war in the 90s? Internet Explorer vs. Netscape, the battle of two titans.

Turns out, things might have taken slightly different turn. According to Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript language, Microsoft tried to acquire Netscape back in 1994, just before the Netscape Navigator release.

Thankfully, it did not happen and a monopoly was avoided, at least for some time.



Here’s what he had to say:

Getting JavaScript out early was important, because Microsoft was “coming after Netscape,” Eich notes. The relationship with Microsoft nearly turned out rather differently: “they’d made an offer to acquire Netscape late 1994 before I joined,” Eich explains; “it was not enough money so they were turned away.”

Can you imagine what would’ve happened if Microsoft had actually offered more cash? No browser wars and no motivation to continue improving a web browser.

Sounds like a worse version of IE6 era.

Source: ComputerWorld