I guess this about sums it up:
History
MS-DOS began as
QDOS (for Quick and Dirty Operating System), written by
Tim Paterson for computer manufacturer
Seattle Computer Products (SCP) in
1980. It was marketed by SCP as 86-DOS because it was designed to run on the
Intel 8086 processor. QDOS
function calls were based on the dominant
CP/M-80 operating system, written by
Digital Research, but it used a different
file system. In a sequence of events that would later inspire much folklore, Microsoft negotiated a license for QDOS from SCP in December 1980 for $25,000, then re-licensed QDOS to IBM. Microsoft then acquired all rights to QDOS for only $50,000 from SCP in July, 1981, shortly before the PC's release.