Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

news.microsoft.com

551–560 of 859 posts

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#551
post #3

Skype, Nokia, Minecraft, LinkedIn. Also Yahoo, almost, at one point. Best of luck to Microsoft with its latest acquisition. It doesn't look that sensible though.

hows minecraft doing for microsoft?

Merchandising is huge, I imagine its doing very well in that regard.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#552
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…

I'm honestly a little bit repulsed that a person could consider that scenario to be a plus.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#553
post #405

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

> It's not "MBA-speak"; this sense of the word "secular" is used in economics, time-series analysis, astronomy, etc.

Of course it's MBA-speak. MBA-speak does not mean that they invented the word, or that only MBAs use the word. It just means that MBAs prefer to use the word where another one would do.

Nadella could have talked about "long-term trends" or "ongoing trends" or "sustainable trends." However, he chose to use "secular trends." His fondness for jargon makes him harder to understand.

Another example of MBA-speak is "synergy." The OED traces "joint action, cooperation" to 1632, and "a combined effect which is greater than additive" to 1904 ("synergism"). The first listed MBA-speak usage of the term is a 1981 article in The Economist on brokerage mergers.

Does that mean that "synergy" is "not MBA-speak" because the term is also used by scientists? Of course not! It just means that the MBAs adopted a term that others had already been using.

I would place "secular" into the same category as "synergy." The OED traces its astronomical usage to 1801 and its economics usage to 1895. Its first appearance outside a scientific context is in 1973, in an article in The Daily Telegraph on interest rates.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#554
post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeculum A saeculum is a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or the equivalent of the complete renewal of a human population. The word has evolved within Romance languages (and Swedish) to mean "century".

> The word has evolved within Romance languages (and Swedish) to mean "century". Doesn't that come from centum (100) like cent and centurion?

That's for Germanic languages. In Romance languages the words for century look like "seculo", "siglo", &c.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#555
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? I'd never approach someone cold like that. >If someone approached you and said "I saw your profile on LinkedIn and I like what your company is doing, I'd like to get together and discuss the possibility of working with you", would you say no? I'd abs…

I think that's a very aggressive line of thinking. You put your profile on LinkedIn. Someone else, looking for a job, is researching opportunities and likes what you are doing. They contact you expressing interest, and you blow them off just because they found out about you via LinkedIn?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#556
so in the end, a recruiting problem is solved bya software company, now could be named as the big L. wondering what happened to all those people who studied Human Resource as a management branch and what are they doing now when whole recruiting thing is being run by bunch of sw engineers sitting in silicon valley and crunching big data.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#557
post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeculum A saeculum is a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or the equivalent of the complete renewal of a human population. The word has evolved within Romance languages (and Swedish) to mean "century".

> The word has evolved within Romance languages (and Swedish) to mean "century". Doesn't that come from centum (100) like cent and centurion?

What they meant is that in Romance languages century is a cognate of secular: secolo in Italian, siècle in French, siglo in Spanish…

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? I'd never approach someone cold like that. >If someone approached you and said "I saw your profile on LinkedIn and I like what your company is doing, I'd like to get together and discuss the possibility of working with you", would you say no? I'd abs…

What other ways would you like a recruiter to contact you then?

I'm not GP but my answer to this question would be "I wouldn't"

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#559
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it was a "mistake" by an isolated team. I don't think the Windows team would change that fundamentally Microsoft's core product without the management's OK.

I agree that a manager somewhere in the organisation did OK this change but that's one person. I don't believe he or she is representative of the hundred thousand people that Microsoft employ.

I'd expect the aggressive data gathering and windows 10 upgrade practice to have been OK-ed at Microsoft's ExCo.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#560
post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? I'd never approach someone cold like that. >If someone approached you and said "I saw your profile on LinkedIn and I like what your company is doing, I'd like to get together and discuss the possibility of working with you", would you say no? I'd abs…

>I'd absolutely say no, because that kind of unsolicited approach means that you're just fishing, and that I happened to wind up in your net along with umpteen others. No it doesn't. I've contacted companies who weren't advertising jobs a few times and it was because I had a specific interest in working at the company in question. In my experience people are usually quite pleased to get these kinds of inquiries, whet…

This was my point and you've phrased it well. How should someone try to identify companies they may want to work for (especially if geography is at play)?

You can search open jobs, but everyone is doing that.

If you want startups, you can look into PR and press releases about funding.

LinkedIn is great for this. As I wrote in another comment, go to LinkedIn and do an advanced search for some word that applies to your background (say 'Python') and within 30 miles of Philadelphia. You'll get a lot of profiles that come up, and many will currently work for companies that are using Python in your area.

Do a bit of research on those companies that come up, find an employee that does what you do (or a level up, or even a CTO at a small shop), find their email address (or ping thru Linked) and make a simple approach.

"Hey, I am currently exploring some new opportunities and while doing some research I came across $COMPANY. I'm not sure if you are currently hiring or not, but based on what I've read (ADD SOMETHING SPECIFIC HERE TO SHOW YOU DID AT LEAST A BIT OF HOMEWORK ON THEM) I'd certainly be interested in learning a bit more about the company. My background is $BRIEFBACKGROUND. If interested, I'd be happy to buy you a cup of coffee to learn some more."

Post reply on HN