Author John Buck has just posted a fascinating and in-depth look at Apple's 1998 acquisition of Final Cut and how that led to iMovie, which was the first of many future iApplications. Through the words of many key players involved, Buck exhaustively details Steve Jobs' efforts to win support for the Mac in the professional video market, the purchase of Final Cut from Macromedia, Adobe's attempt to shut Final Cut down, and how Apple decided to take its learnings to iMovie. This breakdown is an excerpt of Buck's two-part book Timeline — A history of editing, which is available on all the major e-reader platforms.
Thanks to Lance from the forums!