20, 1996, Apple announced that it would acquire NeXT for $400 million; as part of the acquisition, Apple planned to use the NeXTSTEP operating system and its Mach kernel as the basis for a future release of Mac OS, and announced that Steve Jobs would return to the company in a consulting role.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in May 1997, Apple first demonstrated the Rhapsody