American multinational technology company — dominant in mainframes and business machines from the 1950s through 1970s — whose 1981 decision to outsource the PC's operating system to Microsoft (retaining no rights to DOS) was the most consequential licensing mistake in business history.
Inadvertently created the conditions for Microsoft's dominance by retaining only a non-exclusive license to DOS — allowing Gates to license it to every other PC manufacturer — demonstrating that even the most sophisticated companies can fail to anticipate the strategic implications of new technological architectures.
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