[cleong]

I'm pretty sure Bill Gate's mom was friends with a IBM board member which is how he got that meeting to provide them with an OS in the first place

[simonh]

IBM wanted to put CP/M on their computer, and mistakenly thought Microsoft owned CP/M because they produced a CP/M add-on card for the Apple II. Initially Bill actually referred them to Digital research, who actually did own CP/M, because at the time Microsoft didn't have an operating system to offer. It was only after the deal between IBM and DR fell through that Microsoft got a second shot at it.