That was Microsoft settling a legal action with Apple. Although the total amount is somewhat clouded ... the settlement that Microsoft paid to Apple might have been around ONE BILLION DOLLARS!
— — —
Here are some backstory that recasts the myth in a different light:
•Microsoft’s $150 stock investment was the result of a settlement of a lawsuit. In fact, the investment was just an initial payment for other “substantial balancing payments” that would be spread out over then next few years, then Apple CFO Fred Anderson said at the time.
The exact amount of the settlement is still unknown as far as I am aware. I’ve seen estimates from $500 million to more than $1 billion.
•The two companies would cross-license all their existing patents, and any new patents that would become available during the next five years.
•That Apple would make Internet Explorer the default browser for the Mac. If this seems strange, then understand that it meant that Microsoft would support IE for the next 5 years, during a time when IE was the primary browser on the market and when sites were designed specifically to support it.
What was this legal action that gave Apple so much leverage over Redmond? It was a strange one: the Apple Computer v. San Francisco Canyon Co. lawsuit.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/stop-the-lies-the-day-that-microsoft-saved-apple/
Couple of corrections, the article you link is good but got some detail wrong . . . There were three interlocking agreements that were revealed 10 years later. They were once published on Scribd. Also Forensic Accountants went back over both Apple and Microsoft books and came to the conclusion that it was not $500 million to $1 Billion in additional payments but as much as $2 BILLION and possibly more in additional licensing payments over the five years the agreements were in place.
The "cross-licensing" was essentially only one-direction. Apple only licensed the at-suit QuickTime IP. . . but Microsoft was required to license essentially everything they developed during the five years that Apple wanted at no cost in perpetuity. Apple apparently did not exercise this often, but they had the option to do it. Essentially, Apple had free access to Microsoft's patent portfolio, but not vice verse.
The inclusion of Internet Explorer, was not really even the "default" browser, but was only included WITH Netscape Navigator. Microsoft did not need to have one more example of forcing their products on the computing world when it was the Netscape/Internet Explorer browser fiasco that had brought the attention of the Justice Department in the first place. So both browsers were included in the Application folder of MacOS and the user could choose.