On December 2, 1996, Steve Jobs set foot on Apple’s Cupertino campus for the first time since his ouster eleven years earlier. In the executive conference room, he met Amelio and Hancock to make the pitch for NeXT. Once again he was scribbling on the whiteboard there, this time giving his lecture about the four waves of computer systems that had culminated, at least in his telling, with the launch of NeXT. He was at his most seductive, despite the fact that he was speaking to two people he didn’t respect. He was particularly adroit at feigning modesty. “It’s probably a totally crazy idea,” he said, but if they found it appealing, “I’ll structure any kind of deal you want—license the software, sell you the company, whatever.” He was, in fact, eager to sell everything, and he pushed that approach. “When you take a close look, you’ll decide you want more than my software,” he told them. “You’ll want to buy the whole company and take all the people.”

　　 1996年12月2日，史蒂夫·喬布斯在時隔11年后，再次踏上了蘋果位于庫比蒂諾的土地。在管理層會議室，他向阿梅里奧和漢考克展示了NeXT。又一次，他在那塊白板上狂寫亂畫，而這次他是在講計算機系統的4次浪潮，以及NeXT作為這次浪潮的頂點出現。他認為BeOS系統是不完整的，也沒有NeXT那么精密髙級。他盡其所能吸引著聽眾，盡管事實上他面對的是他并不尊重的兩個人。他尤其擅長偽裝謙遜。“可能這是個完全瘋狂的想法。”他說，但是如果他們感興趣，“我愿意設計任何一種你們想要的合作方式——授權軟件，把公司賣給你們——哪種方式都行。”事實上，他是渴望把公司全部賣掉，因此他著力推薦這個方式。“如果你們了解得更多，你們會決定想要的不僅僅是我的軟件，”他對他們說，“你們會想收購整個公司并收編所有員工。”

　　A few weeks later Jobs and his family went to Hawaii for Christmas vacation. Larry Ellison was also there, as he had been the year before. “You know, Larry, I think I’ve found a way for me to get back into Apple and get control of it without you having to buy it,” Jobs said as they walked along the shore. Ellison recalled, “He explained his strategy, which was getting Apple to buy NeXT, then he would go on the board and be one step away from being CEO.” Ellison thought that Jobs was missing a key point. “But Steve, there’s one thing I don’t understand,” he said. “If we don’t buy the company, how can we make any money?” It was a reminder of how different their desires were. Jobs put his hand on Ellison’s left shoulder, pulled him so close that their noses almost touched, and said, “Larry, this is why it’s really important that I’m your friend. You don’t need any more money.”

　　 “你看，拉里，我想我找到了一種方式重回蘋果并獲得控制杈，而且你也不用去收購它。”在夏威夷的康娜度假村散步時，喬布斯這樣對埃利森說。那年他們一起去那兒過圣誕節。埃利森回憶說：“他解釋了他的策略，即促成蘋果收購NeXT,然后他就可以進入董事會，離CEO的位子僅一步之遙。”埃利森認為喬布斯忽視了一個關鍵問題。“但是史蒂夫，有件事我不明白，”他說，“如果我們不收購公司，我們怎么賺錢呢？”這再次顯示了他們的欲求是多么不同。喬布斯把手搭在埃利森的左肩上，把他拉到自己跟前，他們的鼻尖幾乎要碰上了，他說：“拉里，這就是為什么有我做你的朋友非常重要。你不需要更多錢了。”