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Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

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Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#501

Post by jkaljundi »

Silhouette wrote: post #448
partiallypro wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is the cheapest of the big networks. LinkedIn is entrenched in its market, unlike most of the others (including Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) Twitter I think would be a good buy somewhere, but Jack and his team seem inept and they probably want a massive premium. When I first heard the news it made no sense; but after pondering, I think I know what they are trying to do, and it does makes sense. Also, LinkedIn w…

is really close to profit This is the thing I find hard to understand about these big corporate acquisitions. What multiple of "really close to profit" makes a bigger number than $26B? If it's a start-up with obvious potential but relatively early in its life, or an established business that is currently reinvesting revenues on a large scale to drive growth, I can understand not being concerned about the profits. But…

It has been growing 35% year on year recently, at $3b revenue. No reason why this could not keep accelerating thanks to effects from MS.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#502

Post by whack »

This is a fantastic move for Microsoft, and IMO, a premature throwing-in-the-towel moment for LinkedIn. At $26B, that's less than 10% of Facebook's market-cap. That's a steal for the world's biggest Social-Professional Network, and the medium through which most recruiting could conceivably happen in the future. Given that MS currently has no social presence at all, but has a fantastic enterprise sales channel, LinkedIn is a great asset for them.

The idea of going to physical career fairs in thousands of colleges around the country, and collecting/handing out paper resumes just to make the connections happen, always seemed like a woefully inefficient way of connecting job seekers with employers. In the future, this process is going to become more and more digital, and networks like LinkedIn are going to become vital hubs in this new wave. If Microsoft can find a way to accelerate and monetize this trend, this acquisition could well be one of the best deals of the decade.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#503

Post by vcjohnson »

bogomipz wrote: post #334
kozhevnikov wrote: post #43

LinkedIn owns Lynda, but Microsoft (MSDN) partnered with Pluralsight, interesting how that will play out.

Well both of those are underwhelming in terms of both content and user experience.

I've had no experience with Lynda but what's underwhelming about PS? It definitely seems to lack of depth in a lot of courses but provides a good overview/refresher on things in my experience.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#504

Post by partiallypro »

Karunamon wrote: post #493
partiallypro wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 y…

I certainly wouldn't call it "spyware" Do you have a better term for code that does user-unwanted tracking of their behavior, on any level, which hides itself from view, is difficult (in many cases impossible) to disable, and resists the will of the user when they try things like hosts file filtering? The only difference between 3rd party spyware and Microsoft spyware is the stated intention of the author. Oh, and th…

So iOS and Android are spyware? Apps that collect telemetry are spyware? Where do you draw the line?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#505

Post by bayofpigs »

torgeek wrote: post #449
MzHN wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skype has gone downhill ever since their first acquisition, and they've been acquired at least three times already. If anything, MS is starting to slowly take it to a better direction, even though it is nowhere near the ideology of the original Skype. I believe that LinkedIn will end up being a similar case, where it will continue to suck, but you'll see some slow progress eventually. EDIT: As pointed out, LinkedIn w…

didnt microsoft remove the p2p functionality and made skype highly centralized?

Yes.. very important to allow monitoring of calls.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#506

Post by HelloNurse »

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…

As far as it is a "corporate social network" the interests of all LinkedIn users, both the good and the bad ones, do not benefit from forcing integration of Microsoft software, accounts, paid services etc. down their throat.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#508

Post by Karunamon »

partiallypro wrote: post #504
Karunamon wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly wouldn't call it "spyware" Do you have a better term for code that does user-unwanted tracking of their behavior, on any level, which hides itself from view, is difficult (in many cases impossible) to disable, and resists the will of the user when they try things like hosts file filtering? The only difference between 3rd party spyware and Microsoft spyware is the stated intention of the author. Oh, and th…

So iOS and Android are spyware? Apps that collect telemetry are spyware? Where do you draw the line?

I'm not sure what your point is. If the problem is that most of our OSes now contain spyware, by any objective definition of the word, that is an accurate statement.

I "draw the line" at the definition I gave in the previous post. Where's the off switch?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#509

Post by partiallypro »

robbbbbbbbb wrote: post #465
partiallypro wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 y…

Just because something is normal doesn't make it right. And just because something takes some telemetry data doesn't mean taking any data is ok. Microsoft has done just fine with windows without taking all this additional information, so I just don't understand the argument that they need it. Also, I think windows 10 is closer to adware than spyware. I think it is adware as it sneakily installs itself, and it has ads…

> Just because something is normal doesn't make it right.

That's debatable, but why should Microsoft allow its competitors have an advantage over them because of telemetry data? The collection doesn't do you any harm, it's not invasive. They aren't looking at your file names, or the text in your documents or your keystrokes. The only time they gather keystroke information is when you're in Cortana...which is literally useless without gathering telemetry for search terms.

> Microsoft has done just fine with windows without taking all this additional information

Except for losing marketshare and people complaining about UX and how OSX is better?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#510

Post by MrMattWright »

etangent wrote: post #346
aleem wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be honest, they're probably buying the users, not the product Couldn't agree more. LinkedIn has to be one of the most under-powered network out there. It's UX is still reminiscent of Orkut days. It's notifications and messaging system is the worst of breed. The network updates and posts on the "wall" are so bad that I stopped reading them years ago because it feels like spam. It prompts me every now and again to…

> It prompts me every now and again to congratulate people on job anniversaries--maybe people do that but it's a weak play when a company reaches to those depths. So what? Facebook prompts me to congratulate on people's birthdays, and Facebook is doing quite well.

I wondered for a long time about the anniversary thing, then actually went and did some analysis on it. Looking at the data, it shows that people mostly tend to do leave jobs on year boundaries so contacting and targeting people at that time of year when they are thinking about changing jobs makes a lot of sense. You can argue the morals of it of course! Here's my blog on it : https://medium.com/@mrmattwright/workforce-analytics-happy-a...
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