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Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

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Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#421

Post by sonthonax »

neilc wrote: post #405
tanzam75 wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: Nadella said re: how MS looks at acquisitions ( http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/13/11920306/microsoft-ceo-sat... ) "Is this asset riding secular usage and technology trends?" - anyone know what that means? In general English, "secular" means "non-religious." In MBA-speak, "secular" means "non-cyclical." An example of cyclical growth would be ExxonMobil between 2004 and 2007. They couldn't keep up this growth,…

> In MBA-speak, "secular" means "non-cyclical." It's not "MBA-speak"; this sense of the word "secular" is used in economics, time-series analysis, astronomy, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_variation

What's the etymology of that?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#424

Post by matsur »

blowski wrote: post #204
oblio wrote: 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…

> 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. The same people who valued Nokia ($7.6 billion writedown) and aQuantive ($6 billion writedown)?

Different people. Both of those acquisitions were in the Ballmer era.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#425

Post by jacquesm »

nevi-me wrote: post #298
jacquesm wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope this will usher in an era of less unethical behaviour from the company under new leadership. /s ?

Not sarcasm, I'm thinking MS purchases the company knowing what its issues (or perceived) are. I see MS as the lesser of 2 evils, a company I can generally trust with my data. The 'Dark Patterns' that LNKD employs would hurt the rest of MS, so this less unethical behaviour would be as that result. Also helps that LNKD will be consolidated with MS in future, so maybe less pressure on the bottom-line as they'll be a pa…

I thought the 'less unethical' was the giveaway, as if you expect them to still be unethical.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#426

Post by partiallypro »

badlogic wrote: post #100
karterk wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Spyware? Really? I can understand the updates making people upset (though they should update!,) and the "suggested apps" in the start menu (which luckily you can turn off.) But calling Windows 10 spyware is total nonsense. Do you think that every other major OS, including Android and iOS, OSX don't take telemetry metrics? You're insane. You could never improve the OS, if you didn't.

Google takes telemetry data from your search results, which frankly are far more invasive than how you scroll through your start menu or how often you use the action center. It's all anonymized, I don't see the problem. I certainly wouldn't call it "spyware," that just a smear and has nothing to do with reality.

They don't track your keystrokes, unless you are using Cortana, which guess what? So does Google/Apple/Amazon when you use their assistants. So you're going to switch to a competitor of Microsofts because they started doing what their competitors already did? Fantastic logic.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#427

Post by brador »

abakker wrote: post #353
coldtea wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - There's a bunch of interesting opportunities for intrgating Dynamics, Yammer, and other MS tools with LinkedIn. I doubt there are any "get $26 billion dollars back" opportunities...

its really about just returning margin on $27 billion. The deal isn't supposed to pay for itself now. To be successful for them, it only has to do better than the cash would have done in a standard portfolio investment. LinkedIn may be able to do that.

They just purchased a verified email address and complete contact address list (with phone numbers) for nearly every white collar worker in the western world.

If managed right, over the lifetime of the investment, this could easily make back 10x what they paid.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#428

Post by PlaneSploit »

sonthonax wrote: post #421
neilc wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In MBA-speak, "secular" means "non-cyclical." It's not "MBA-speak"; this sense of the word "secular" is used in economics, time-series analysis, astronomy, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_variation

What's the etymology of that?

1250-1300; < Medieval Latin sēculāris, Late Latin saeculāris worldly, temporal (opposed to eternal), Latin: of an age, equivalent to Latin saecul (um) long period of time + -āris -ar1; replacing Middle English seculer < Old French < Latin, as above

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#429

Post by jacquesm »

fecak wrote: post #255
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…

> 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. I'm a recruiter, and fully understand reluctance to use recruiters (expensive, not to mention a host of other reputation issues). I don't quite understand "I would't hire someone via...LinkedIn". 'Hire someone via LinkedIn' could mean a host of things. The most obvious w…

> If you saw a LinkedIn profile that you thought would make a good addition to your team, would you not reach out to that person just because you found them on LinkedIn?

There's a good reason for me not to have a linkedin profile. Recruiters somehow still manage to find me but this is fortunately less of a problem than it would be otherwise (judging by my colleagues and friends).

It's a bit like not being visible in google: if you can't google it, it doesn't exist. And if you're not on linkedin the laziest contingent of the recruiting profession will be unable to locate you. Fine by me.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#430

Post by abakker »

abakker wrote: post #360
slig wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Without them, your parents' computer would just be insecure, instead. Unfortunately, keeping things static doesn't work so well with internet connected devices. It would be nice if things didn't break with updates, though.

I will backpedal a bit and say though: it is never OK to arbitrarily reboot a system. Never. I'll also say that I would not use windows 10 for anything important.

The idea behind their update system is generally sound, but their execution is not good.

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