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Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

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Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#791

Post by winteriscoming »

nailer wrote: post #80
ivoras wrote: post #11

Oh, 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 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…

>> Actually looking forward to MS's UX folk cleaning up LinkedIn

MS's UX - Like the one where they consider closing a dialog box to be a consent to upgrade to Windows 10? ;)

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#792

Post by orik »

jacquesm wrote: post #87

Wonder how many people will use this as an opportunity to either create a linkedin profile or to delete the one they already have. Change-of-control risks on a deal like this are substantial. This is also an excellent reminder that you never know where the profiles you create will end up.

I deleted mine two years back but am trying to get a job at MSFT around august, so I suppose I should now make one, huh?

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#793

Post by codeisawesome »

swalsh wrote: post #595
pif wrote: post #112

I had been thinking recently about deleting my LinkedIn account. The question has just been settled.

It's a lot like dating. Today you can simply post a profile on a site/app, and algorithms can now match you. Your exposure is now hundreds or thousands of people (no matter your preferences). The happenstance of being in the right place at the right time is cut down so much, it's almost irrelevant. It's far more likely a great match will be on the 1 of 3 places single people go, within the last month. It makes better…

Exactly. LinkedIn is... IF that, only ONE of the 3 places the "Single People" of this context go. As a developer, people I want to work with are looking for me in many, many places. LinkedIn is definitely one of the "easy places" but that also means I get a lot of spam.

I'm going to look a lot more closely at my own website now. People who want to work with us, "search" for us, not "LinkedIn" for us - thankfully. This means local IRL networks, communities, a certain Q&A site, events and blogs if you were wondering.

This isn't my most coherent comment. I'm not happy with what has just happened at all.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#794

Post by codeisawesome »

bgribble wrote: post #280

Microsoft exec #1: "It seems that people are hating us less and less these days. Somehow, the quality of our products and services is perceived as higher and less hostile to users. That's a problem!" Microsoft exec #2: "How about we acquire one of the most hated brands out there? One that makes tech people grind their teeth when it's even mentioned. How about LinkedIn? That should tarnish our image up till it's right…

Dilbert material.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#795

Post by birbal »

exelius wrote: post #299

Great move. IMO this is Microsoft making a play for HR managed services -- look for them to sign a big deal with ADP / BenefitsExpress / buy someone like Zenefits to complement this purchase. The power and value of LinkedIn is as a recruiting platform; and recruiting is a big-money problem that's only getting worse. If they can turn LinkedIn into a benefits management platform, that would be a huge win for Microsoft…

This is IMO a big deal because MSFT will now own business identity. Linkedin will become your business ID regardless of which company you join. Owning identity that travels across companies is incredibly powerful. This is a huge upgrade to AD. It's provisioned, verified (socially) and serves as a huge data source.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#796

Post by codeisawesome »

lanevorockz wrote: post #517
korginator wrote: post #411

Interesting to see the obvious pro-microsoft bias in comments here. I can only imagine the worst from microsoft and their user-hostile behaviour. * trojan-like telemetry impossible to control or block * malware-like behaviour through "legitimate" software update channels, force-feeding windows 10 on unwilling customers * embrace-extend-extinguish, mission accomplished by destroying Nokia's smart phone business * thei…

I totally agree that Hacker News is becoming quite bias ... This in itself should be raise with the ycombinator itself, the bias is what pushed Slashdot down

The people here are upvoting the celebration and downvoting the criticism for obvious reasons. They see themselves as the next $26B acquisition.

It's something akin to that quote:

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

I'd replace that with:

"Morality never took root in the people of the world because humans see themselves not as individuals of exploited mass but as temporarily embarrassed Overlords."

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#797

Post by golfer »

Xyik wrote: post #714
pilom wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that revenue is not profit. If expenses are greater than revenue and the trends don't show that changing soon (i.e. "default dead") then it is extremely hard to justify such a high valuation. There are the employees, the physical infrastructure, the code they've written, the brand name, and maybe the marketing value of the users, but granting a valuation based on consistently negative profit is somewha…

That's debatable since many companies like Amazon are able to turn a profit by sacrificing growth. Good point though and this information is also available in quarterly earnings reports. The main argument I was making really is that people should take a look at some numbers before having such strong opinions. I believe last I checked LinkedIn was profitable.

LinkedIn is not profitable. They lose money every quarter. Revenue is around $800-900MM a quarter though.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#798

Post by dj_doh »

threeseed wrote: post #195
ravivyas wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, plus Slideshare can be a massive boost to Powerpoint.

Actually there hasn't been enough talk about the companies LinkedIn acquired. Connectifier - recruiting intelligence Lynda - online learning FlipTop - predictive marketing RunHop - personalised content Refresh.io - relationship content surfacing These could be huge additions to Azure, Office 365, Bing, Cortana etc.

Stuffs like these are going to be great boost for MS and its cloud initiative. Zenefit-esque product is next on the horizon.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#799

Post by genzoman »

vtlynch wrote: post #684
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…

Here is the main problem: Who likes LinkedIn? Sure, we can debate its usefulness, how popular it is outside of IT, etc. But I think across the board, no one LIKES LinkedIn.

i like it ok. it directly led to my current job, and couple other good offers. for $0 i can't complain.

Re: Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B

#800

Post by mbesto »

exelius wrote: post #299

Great move. IMO this is Microsoft making a play for HR managed services -- look for them to sign a big deal with ADP / BenefitsExpress / buy someone like Zenefits to complement this purchase. The power and value of LinkedIn is as a recruiting platform; and recruiting is a big-money problem that's only getting worse. If they can turn LinkedIn into a benefits management platform, that would be a huge win for Microsoft…

> Oracle, Salesforce and IBM

Sorry to nitpick, but why isn't SAP ever mentioned in this same list? Believe it or not, but SAP does more than double that of SFDC for business software.

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