According to a former Bungie employee, Microsoft purchased the Halo creator just "days" before Apple. In a chat with Develop, ex-Bungie developer Tuncer Deniz said things went down like this: the studio asked Apple if it was interested in an acquisition and CEO Steve Jobs mulled the idea but initially declined. Jobs changed his mind about a week later and Cupertino contacted Bungie to cut a deal – but it was too late. "Bungie had already consummated the deal with Microsoft," said Deniz.
Jobs was reportedly "furious" when Microsoft announced the acquisition, according to former Redmond executive Ed Fries. "He was mad at Ballmer and phoned him up and was angry because we'd just bought the premier Mac game developer and made them an Xbox developer." Ballmer tasked Fries with defusing the situation, and he cooled Jobs off by promising that certain PC games would be ported to Mac – no specific titles were mentioned in the interview. "It was a pretty strange time," Fries added.