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Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

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Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#232
Per LinkedIn's Form 8-K [1], LinkedIn has agreed to pay Microsoft a $725 million break-up fee if (a) LinkedIn's Board of Directors withdraws its recommendation of the merger, (b) LinkedIn accepts a superior offer, or (c) LinkedIn's stockholders turn the merger down. Note that LinkedIn may terminate the merger without paying the break-up fee if it avoids announcing an acquisition within one year of so terminating [2].

[1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000110465916...

[2] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000110465916...

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#233
post #150

The comments here are hilarious, they really reveal the IT bubble. The only real complaint about this purchase would be that LinkedIn was overvalued. And I wouldn't bet on that since Microsoft surely sent a big team of their brightest cookies to make a valuation of the company. But other than that, LinkedIn fits: it is a corporate social network, if you will. I know that "corporate social network" is almost an oxymor…

> it is a corporate social network

I'd go further and say it is a global corporate social network (unlike, say Yammer, which is a local corporate social network).

I agree that this is a fantastic play by MS. When I am researching both job candidates and employers, LinkedIn is one of the two resources I use (Google being the other).

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#234
post #183
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine it was more like: - Microsoft has the money - LinkedIn is the biggest thing in recruiting (I don't especially like it either, but it is). I wouldn't personally hire someone via recruiters or LinkedIn, but I would hire someone via a recomendation from a contact I maintain on LinkedIn. - Microsoft makes business tools - There's a bunch of interesting opportunities for intrgating Dynamics, Yammer, and other MS…

Exactly. Integration of LinkedIn data with Dynamics and Yammer would be huge. Imagine this scenario: - User is logged in to LinkedIn - User visits your website - Their visit is logged by some JS to Dynamics CRM - A record is created/updated in Dynamics CRM, populated with their name, job title and contact details from LinkedIn Further down the line, I can see LinkedIn fully becoming part of Office 365. This isn't Mic…

Honestly, this just sounds like a good reason to not be logged into LinkedIn ever, if I needed an additional one. Name and job title sent to random websites? No thanks.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#235
post #89

Genuine question... what do MS stand to gain from this?

One can only assume that they want to dig their heels into entreprise. LinkedIn is massive when it comes to professional connections & Hiring, even company PR. LinkedIn has a bunch of products that can connect well into MS’s ecosystems and add value there.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#236
post #131

Are the guys in the picture at the top photoshopped on another pic?

Regarding the picture at the top of the article, it looks like it's been photoshopped.

The lighting is inconsistent with the background. I think the tree on the left has been added with the same lighting to try make the lighting of Satya and the two others unnoticed.

Without the tree, this picture would be blatantly laughable. At the same level as http://goo.gl/S6y3Qx

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#237
post #150

The comments here are hilarious, they really reveal the IT bubble. The only real complaint about this purchase would be that LinkedIn was overvalued. And I wouldn't bet on that since Microsoft surely sent a big team of their brightest cookies to make a valuation of the company. But other than that, LinkedIn fits: it is a corporate social network, if you will. I know that "corporate social network" is almost an oxymor…

Exactly. I had LinkedIn on my list of undervalued tech stocks, and I think this bears that out. LinkedIn has absolutely no competition. LinkedIn is the world's biggest, virtually-complete graph of most enterprise organizational charts / structures. That alone will be valuable for Microsoft's enterprise business.

MS could, erm, look up those org charts on linkedin.com for $0 (indeed very useful at times.) What value is added by buying LinkedIn for $26G? How owning LinkedIn is going to add $1-1.5B/year (assuming eventually you want a P/E between, I dunno, 15 and 25), to MS's revenue?

(I'm sure someone at MS has an answer to this, it's just that they haven't been tremendously successful in the past with their big acquisitions; I don't think Skype or Nokia paid off. And in general tech companies often buy other companies without much apparent success. Why is it so crazy to doubt their wisdom in any particular instance?)

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large numbers of people in the tech community . Most people aren't us.

I would think that non-techies would be even more confused and annoyed by their computer suddenly drastically changing out from underneath them without their permission.

Apple's proven that the general population get over this pretty quickly, though. Look at their iOS 7 update.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the forced Win10 updates, spyware, ads directly in the OS which you paid for, ...?

The forced updates are something that's been long overdue. Imagine a world without old versions of IE that your webapps still have to support because else you're losing 10% of your users.

Or a world where a forced update breaks my parents' computer that was working perfectly fine before.
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