Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
471–480 of 859 posts
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#472Earlier 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.
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
You not liking it doesn't make it a poor business strategy.
I went to a store once, and their cash registers were down because a Windows update was forced on them. One was working, 2 weren't. A store manager was on the phone with some tech support guy and was not happy.
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#475Oh, 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…
s/Googled/Bing'ed/
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#476I also don't see other companies advertising jobs on the platform owned my a big tech giant whose sole purpose isn't that. I don't think they will make more money in the "recruiting" side.
This deal sounds like a 50% premium but that just brings it back to what it was 6 months ago, lesser than the peak price. Sounds more like LinkedIn just gave up.
Only positive thing I see is, that MS can bundle HR software with Office 365.
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or a world where a forced update breaks my parents' computer that was working perfectly fine before.
As opposed to a world full of legacy systems with security holes that are part of botnets.
The only time forcing all updates in that way makes a difference is when Microsoft wants to override a user's deliberate preference not to have their system changed in that way. This cannot possibly be in the user's interest, only Microsoft's.
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#478Satya Nadella has made a bold final attempt to stop LinkedIn from spamming him
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
Large numbers of people in the tech community . Most people aren't us.
Forced Windows 10 upgrade became a meme on 9gag ("Went to the toilets and saw this", etc). I learnt about the story over there before it was on HN. I'm not saying 9gag is representative, but I counter the "no-one noticed the forced upgrades". Even my parents did. Everyone noticed.
Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
#480Oh, 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 feel like I am in a strange wonderland.