NeXT Software, Inc. (formerly NeXT Computer, Inc.) was a computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets.
NeXT was founded in 1985 by Steve Jobs after his resignation from Apple Computer. In addition to its hardware, NeXT developed the NEXTSTEP operating system, later retooled as a programming environment capable of running on several different operating systems, most notably Solaris. This put NEXTSTEP in direct competition with Windows NT and the then-upcoming Cairo, an object-oriented version of Windows NT. In 1993, NeXT withdrew from the hardware business and, on December 20, 1996, was bought by Apple for US$400 million. Parts of NeXT's software were later used as the foundation for Mac OS X.