Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

news.microsoft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 859 posts

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#271

Post by moon_of_moon »

$26 Billion is actually fair : The question is, would it provide earnings of $2.6 Billion per year discounted over the next ten years?

I think so.

Keep in mind, MS sells $90 billion of product and services a year, so we're talking less than 3% of that. (MS cost of revenue is about a third of revenues!)

1] First imagine LinkedIn used as the primary sales channel for MS products. Head of sales is probably salivating.

2] And then there is advertising. I think part of the reason LinkedIn is valuable is this: apart from LinkedIn there is no simple way (barring credit cards or other documents) to verify if an account who signs up to an online service is a real person, or who they claim to be. For an advertising business, this is gold: Expect the LinkedIn federated sign on to be integrated into many microsoft services (and by more third party services.)

Strategically if you are selling software/anything, you have are better off targeting the top 10% of earners rather than a gazillion broke teenagers.

Of course there are fake profiles on LinkedIn, but they are minor, and weeding them out is probably easier than on other platforms.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#272

Post by coldtea »

karterk wrote: post #63
ivoras wrote: post #11

Oh, I can just imagine how the process went at MS: * Exec A: Social things are Good (coming to the conclusion about 10 years too late) * Exec B: Shall we create our own Google+? * Exec C: No, that didn't turn out that well for Google. Let's buy something existing. * Exec B: Ok, I've Googled a list of top 10 social networking sites for sale, and ordered them by list price, but really we'll need to come up with a strat…

Ah, the armchair critic. I'm by no means a Microsoft fanboy, but things have been much better under Satya Nadella.

Have they? Business wise? Or because he likes open source (which is orthogonal and irrelevant to the discussion)?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#274

Post by JoeAltmaier »

nailer wrote: post #80
ivoras wrote: post #11

Oh, I can just imagine how the process went at MS: * Exec A: Social things are Good (coming to the conclusion about 10 years too late) * Exec B: Shall we create our own Google+? * Exec C: No, that didn't turn out that well for Google. Let's buy something existing. * Exec B: Ok, I've Googled a list of top 10 social networking sites for sale, and ordered them by list price, but really we'll need to come up with a strat…

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…

Except I haven't gotten a gig in years from LinkedIn. I use it as an automated resume generator tool; I don't give a rats ass who sees my resume on LinkedIn itself.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#276

Post by perseusprime11 »

nailer wrote: post #80
ivoras wrote: post #11

Oh, I can just imagine how the process went at MS: * Exec A: Social things are Good (coming to the conclusion about 10 years too late) * Exec B: Shall we create our own Google+? * Exec C: No, that didn't turn out that well for Google. Let's buy something existing. * Exec B: Ok, I've Googled a list of top 10 social networking sites for sale, and ordered them by list price, but really we'll need to come up with a strat…

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…

Put the Yammer product folks on LinkedIn and clean up the LinkedIn web and mobile products.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#277

Post by rileymat2 »

davidiach wrote: post #230

Noob question: how can Microsoft buy LinkedIn given that large parts of it are owned buy random investors who might not want to sell? What happens to someone who, lets say, bought $10k worth of LinkedIn stock two years ago and has no intention to sell. Will that person be forced to sell his stock?

Yes, if a majority of the votes from shareholders approve of a sale others will be forced to sell.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#278

Post by perseusprime11 »

hammock wrote: post #254
nailer wrote: 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…

Calling LinkedIn a business tool seems more appropriate. No one actually thinks of it as a social network anymore do they? (In the consumer sense of the term, not the graph theory one)

A business tool to integrate into sharepoint? What?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#280

Post by bgribble »

Microsoft exec #1: "It seems that people are hating us less and less these days. Somehow, the quality of our products and services is perceived as higher and less hostile to users. That's a problem!"

Microsoft exec #2: "How about we acquire one of the most hated brands out there? One that makes tech people grind their teeth when it's even mentioned. How about LinkedIn? That should tarnish our image up till it's right back where it used to be."

Microsoft exec #1: "There could be a vice-presidency in it for me if I can make that work! Great idea!"

Post reply on HN