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Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

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Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#641

Post by TeMPOraL »

bserge wrote: post #592
TeMPOraL wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if and when the society will finally develop an immune response to this business pattern: a) get a large amount of people to tie their lives/businesses to a service you provide, b) sell out to a bigger fish, leaving these users high and dry.

On the bright side, these users can likely move to another platform if the big fish fudges up. And now the big fish has spent a massive amount on a worthless product. Kinda like MySpace.

Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. Services that came after MySpace aren't like MySpace.

Switching from one dominant service for posting your meal photos to another dominant service for posting your meal photos is relatively easy. But if a web tool you depend on decides to finish their "incredible journey", you're likely to remain without an equivalent replacement (VC subsidies making it easy for few players to suck out oxygen from a market segment), and you end up having to adapt your workflow to whatever remains or comes after.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#642

Post by Miraste »

Axsuul wrote: post #640
Miraste wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every acquired company always says that, practically verbatim. It's meaningless, the CEO doesn't have a say anymore. Salesforce's designs are the relevant direction now, and they're not telling. Facebook (Telegram, Oculus, Instagram) and IBM (dozens of companies) come to mind as specific examples of acquisitions in which the former CEO insisted that business would continue as usual, only for the management teams to b…

Good point (also, don't think you meant to include Telegram in there)

My bad, I meant WhatsApp.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#643

Post by sgerenser »

Miraste wrote: post #638
Axsuul wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack will continue to be Slack[1] according to the CEO which doesn't signal a culture change. 1. https://twitter.com/stewart/status/1333901111254675456

Every acquired company always says that, practically verbatim. It's meaningless, the CEO doesn't have a say anymore. Salesforce's designs are the relevant direction now, and they're not telling. Facebook (Telegram, Oculus, Instagram) and IBM (dozens of companies) come to mind as specific examples of acquisitions in which the former CEO insisted that business would continue as usual, only for the management teams to b…

Maybe it hasn’t been long enough yet but I hear Red Hat hasn’t changed much post IBM acquisition.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#644

Post by mrgordon »

nkerkin wrote: post #461
mrgordon wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely prefer Slack. Here are a few reasons off the top of my head. 1. Many users have issues where the unmute button is unresponsive. Typically the workaround is to turn off incoming video feeds which isn't exactly ideal. This is a major turnoff. 2. Difficult to stay involved in multiple channels as described by another comment. I find it tedious to find what's happened if I've been away for a while. 3. Slack…

> 7. Ability to run a small chatroom for free which AFAIK Microsoft doesn't offer (its included with other Microsoft products that were paid for usually) Looks like there's a free [0] version of teams that supports unlimited search, unlimited app integrations and meetings of up to 100 attendees. Compare to free [1] slack that has limitations of 10k searchable messages, 10 app integrations and only 1-1 meetings [0]: h…

Fair enough, not too surprising Microsoft can offer a limited version for free. The Microsoft free version is much more limited than you imply though. The "meetings of up to 100 attendees" are for 60 minutes maximum versus the Slack ones which have no cap. Not to mention many people use Slack + an external video chat app so they wouldn't care.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#645

Post by freedomben »

sgerenser wrote: post #643
Miraste wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every acquired company always says that, practically verbatim. It's meaningless, the CEO doesn't have a say anymore. Salesforce's designs are the relevant direction now, and they're not telling. Facebook (Telegram, Oculus, Instagram) and IBM (dozens of companies) come to mind as specific examples of acquisitions in which the former CEO insisted that business would continue as usual, only for the management teams to b…

Maybe it hasn’t been long enough yet but I hear Red Hat hasn’t changed much post IBM acquisition.

I work for Red Hat but opinions are my own.

We're still remarkably separate from IBM, just as was promised. I do find myself collaborating from time to time with IBMers but most of the time we're pretty separate. Their culture is very different than ours so it can be interesting when we team up. I think Red Hat is having a big impact on IBM honestly. They seem to be really embracing Red Hat tech and culture. I was really worried when the acquisition happened, but I no longer am worried about it. In fact, for the first time in a long time I'm optimistic about IBM. I'm looking forward to see what they do.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#646

Post by [deleted] »

maratc wrote: post #605
pbourke wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack is valued higher than Kroger, which runs 2,700+ grocery stores in the United Stages. Apple and Sweden have about the same valuation right now. Apple is worth 30% more than Saudi Arabia.

> Apple and Sweden have about the same valuation right now Sweden doesn't have valuation, so you can't compare them. Apple has valuation which is measured in dollars . Sweden has GDP which is measured in dollars per year . The units are different, so the numbers aren't comparable. I guess one can say "Sweden produces about one Apple's worth in a year", or "Saudi Arabia produces about one Apple's worth in a year and a…

[deleted]

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#647

Post by [deleted] »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #620
pbourke wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack is valued higher than Kroger, which runs 2,700+ grocery stores in the United Stages. Apple and Sweden have about the same valuation right now. Apple is worth 30% more than Saudi Arabia.

Useful numbers aren’t just scalar quantities you can compare. Market capitalization and GDP are not “worth” or useful for ranking “worth”.

[deleted]

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#648

Post by pbourke »

maratc wrote: post #605
pbourke wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack is valued higher than Kroger, which runs 2,700+ grocery stores in the United Stages. Apple and Sweden have about the same valuation right now. Apple is worth 30% more than Saudi Arabia.

> Apple and Sweden have about the same valuation right now Sweden doesn't have valuation, so you can't compare them. Apple has valuation which is measured in dollars . Sweden has GDP which is measured in dollars per year . The units are different, so the numbers aren't comparable. I guess one can say "Sweden produces about one Apple's worth in a year", or "Saudi Arabia produces about one Apple's worth in a year and a…

> Apple has valuation which is measured in dollars. Sweden has GDP which is measured in dollars per year. The units are different, so the numbers aren't comparable.

Of course. I was referring to Sweden's national wealth[1], which is roughly equal to Apple's market cap of $2T. Sweden's GDP of $560B is only roughly twice Apple's FY2020 revenue of $275B.

Apple is worth roughly 2% of the national wealth of the United States, which is $106T.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_wea...

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#649

Post by ebg13 »

sgerenser wrote: post #643
Miraste wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every acquired company always says that, practically verbatim. It's meaningless, the CEO doesn't have a say anymore. Salesforce's designs are the relevant direction now, and they're not telling. Facebook (Telegram, Oculus, Instagram) and IBM (dozens of companies) come to mind as specific examples of acquisitions in which the former CEO insisted that business would continue as usual, only for the management teams to b…

Maybe it hasn’t been long enough yet but I hear Red Hat hasn’t changed much post IBM acquisition.

Red Hat was independently profitable. Slack is currently not.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#650

Post by maratc »

pbourke wrote: post #648
maratc wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple and Sweden have about the same valuation right now Sweden doesn't have valuation, so you can't compare them. Apple has valuation which is measured in dollars . Sweden has GDP which is measured in dollars per year . The units are different, so the numbers aren't comparable. I guess one can say "Sweden produces about one Apple's worth in a year", or "Saudi Arabia produces about one Apple's worth in a year and a…

> Apple has valuation which is measured in dollars. Sweden has GDP which is measured in dollars per year. The units are different, so the numbers aren't comparable. Of course. I was referring to Sweden's national wealth[1], which is roughly equal to Apple's market cap of $2T. Sweden's GDP of $560B is only roughly twice Apple's FY2020 revenue of $275B. Apple is worth roughly 2% of the national wealth of the United Sta…

> National net wealth, also known as national net worth, is the total sum of the value of a nation's assets minus its liabilities.

For the little sense that comparing a public company to a nation state makes, one still might be inclined to compare Apples to apples (and not to Oranges).

In this case, one should compare National Wealth (country's assets minus its liabilities) against Apple's assets minus its liabilities. That calculation gives us about 65B dollars, which puts Apple somewhere between Ghana (95th) and Turkmenistan (96th).

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