I have a good friend that was the Chief Architect for dBase III+ years ago for Ashton Tate. He told me that there were negotiations with Dr. Dave to buy Fox for around $12M. But then some hotshot MBAs blew the deal when they tried to nickle 'n' dime Dr. Dave down to a few million. Had this deal gone through, Borland would have wound-up owning Fox.

Simple events can create enormous change.