751–760 of 859 posts
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.
Does anyone have a reference to even some wild speculation as to what Microsoft gets out of for their own business? Or is this just somewhere to park some cash? I am honestly confused.
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)?
The problem with Nokia was with the disaster of Microsoft's mobile strategy.
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Yeah, even assuming Microsoft cuts losses and makes the company profitable again through some product integrations, it's still a huge price tag. LinkedIn has stalled growth and brought in $2.9 billion in rev last year, which means that all things constant it will take nine years to cover the $26 B price tag. Microsoft must really have some big plans for it to justify the costs.
With all things constant it will take a lot more than 9 years. The 2.9 billion in revenue doesn't account for the costs of running their business. Microsoft would need to make 26 billion in profit to cover the price tag.
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> I'm surprised by the amount of negativity about the deal here on HN price tag + whether it really makes sense for MS. Everybody remembers the Nokia fiasco.
Plus nobody likes Microsoft or linked in. Microsoft makes stuff you only use because you're paid to, and LinkedIn is something you use because of its ubiquity and despite the phone calls you're going to receive at work by desperate recruiters.
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It think the negativity is mostly due to the price tag. If I was a shareholder I would be furious over Microsoft paying $26billion for a money losing company. Even if Microsoft see some potential the rest of us aren't, and we have to assume that they are, they still need to find a way to turn a profit on the deal. Given that they bought Nokia, only to shut it down, more or less, it would be reasonable for the shareho…
I wonder how much of the value was attributed to vanity metrics like the number of times people check the site? An inflated number since LinkedIn started using short term exploitation tactics like sending Notification Badges for your contacts' Birthdays and Work Anniversaries. Personally I also feel fleeced out of an outrageous monthly subscription that was sneaked through an undeclared AppStore transaction (I got >5…
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Great story. It's a sure sign that a strong bureaucracy has set in when one sees this. It's common in government organizations, but becoming more common in non-government (especially large) organizations.
becoming more common in non-government (especially large) organizations. Been like that for awhile. You're just getting to know more of the vast ocean of all the bureaucratic mindset that is out there.
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Have you ever been on the ground floor of a synergistic acquisition? In theory it should be easy to integrate data sources and reap the benefits. In practice what happens are year long efforts and organizational re-structurings every 3-6 months depending on what the cadence is with the end result being people being shuffled around and no benefits being reaped.
The restructuring is a huge part of it. Like Game of Thrones: Corporate Edition. Everyone is fighting to keep their job and use the opportunity to climb the ladder, and ensure their pet projects remain competitive. There are MASSIVE political interests from all levels and they can often eclipse the focus on actual integration and joining forces.
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does anyone actually interact on LinkedIn? I thought it was just a platform for recruitment spam
Imagine this: A recruiter messages you and then follows up with a skype interview through LinkedIn.
To make that happen they'll have to put up even more barriers to messaging people out-of-band. Much like Upwork/etc.
I'm surprised by the amount of negativity about the deal here on HN. It seems like an excellent match. I could see LinkedIn as an asset for Microsoft anywhere in the realms of work collaboration and HR. No other social network besides LinkedIn comes close to complimenting MicroSoft's wheelhouse of enterprise utility.
And MS have a terrible track record for acquisitions.