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Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

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Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#81

Post by clarky07 »

makecheck wrote: post #23

"Sledgehammer spending" really bugs me. It says "we didn't exercise any brain cells to figure out what our purchase is actually worth, we're just throwing money at the wall because we think we can". Investors should scream at stuff like this. How many things could millions of extra dollars buy? For one thing, maybe they could have acquired 4 or 5 additional companies, patents or other IP. If there was any chance that…

Microsoft is buying a highly successful business that actually produces real revenue and profit. What makes you think they didn't do an due diligence and instead just threw a number like 1.2 billion out? You have no evidence of this, and it makes absolutely no sense.

As a MSFT shareholder I have no problem with them doing this given that Yammer had between 50-100 million in revenue last year and dominates their market.

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#82

Post by moreorless »

clarky07 wrote: post #81
makecheck wrote: post #23

"Sledgehammer spending" really bugs me. It says "we didn't exercise any brain cells to figure out what our purchase is actually worth, we're just throwing money at the wall because we think we can". Investors should scream at stuff like this. How many things could millions of extra dollars buy? For one thing, maybe they could have acquired 4 or 5 additional companies, patents or other IP. If there was any chance that…

Microsoft is buying a highly successful business that actually produces real revenue and profit. What makes you think they didn't do an due diligence and instead just threw a number like 1.2 billion out? You have no evidence of this, and it makes absolutely no sense. As a MSFT shareholder I have no problem with them doing this given that Yammer had between 50-100 million in revenue last year and dominates their marke…

>> As a MSFT shareholder I have no problem with them doing this given that Yammer had between 50-100 million in revenue last year and dominates their market.

As a MSFT shareholder, I am interested in how they came to the 1.2B price. Between 50-100 million in revenue? Actualized revenue does grow and shrink. It is a fixed number. That is quite a spread. They might very well dominate their market, but how much is the market worth? What is its upside?

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#83

Post by nl »

csallen wrote: post #44
pbreit wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1b is a steal for Yammer. I'm surprised Yammer would take that right now considering it's current valuation and how bright its prospects are. It has one of the most efficient B2B customer acquisition schemes. Even with the culture mis-match, I suspect this will be a good acquisition for MSFT.

Do you have reliable information on Yammer's success? User numbers, revenue, etc.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/05/after-a-breakout-2011-yamme... says 2011 revenue was around $25 million.

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#84

Post by moreorless »

mtgx wrote: post #56
rayval wrote: post #21

Yammer is Microsoft's Instagram, and not just because of the same price tag. As did Facebook, Microsoft is buying market traction, user engagement, brand equity, UX chops, and vision.

I think Facebook bought Instagram because they were afraid of its fast growth and what it could become in the future.

Aren't they all the same people?

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#85

Post by pdubs »

gaius wrote: post #77
makecheck wrote: post #23

"Sledgehammer spending" really bugs me. It says "we didn't exercise any brain cells to figure out what our purchase is actually worth, we're just throwing money at the wall because we think we can". Investors should scream at stuff like this. How many things could millions of extra dollars buy? For one thing, maybe they could have acquired 4 or 5 additional companies, patents or other IP. If there was any chance that…

I would like to see "SpaceX" as a measure. As in, "Microsoft has just acquired Yammer for 1.5 from-scratch space programmes". Just to put the real value of money into perspective.

Similarly, Valve Software was recently estimated to be worth around $3 billion...and they have a money-printing machine with Steam.

"Yammer sold for 1/3 of one of the most successful digital distribution platforms."

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#86

Post by edwinnathaniel »

moreorless wrote: post #82
clarky07 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is buying a highly successful business that actually produces real revenue and profit. What makes you think they didn't do an due diligence and instead just threw a number like 1.2 billion out? You have no evidence of this, and it makes absolutely no sense. As a MSFT shareholder I have no problem with them doing this given that Yammer had between 50-100 million in revenue last year and dominates their marke…

>> As a MSFT shareholder I have no problem with them doing this given that Yammer had between 50-100 million in revenue last year and dominates their market. As a MSFT shareholder, I am interested in how they came to the 1.2B price. Between 50-100 million in revenue? Actualized revenue does grow and shrink. It is a fixed number. That is quite a spread. They might very well dominate their market, but how much is the m…

What about SP and Yammer joint market-share?

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#87

Post by Spearchucker »

moreorless wrote: post #82
clarky07 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is buying a highly successful business that actually produces real revenue and profit. What makes you think they didn't do an due diligence and instead just threw a number like 1.2 billion out? You have no evidence of this, and it makes absolutely no sense. As a MSFT shareholder I have no problem with them doing this given that Yammer had between 50-100 million in revenue last year and dominates their marke…

>> As a MSFT shareholder I have no problem with them doing this given that Yammer had between 50-100 million in revenue last year and dominates their market. As a MSFT shareholder, I am interested in how they came to the 1.2B price. Between 50-100 million in revenue? Actualized revenue does grow and shrink. It is a fixed number. That is quite a spread. They might very well dominate their market, but how much is the m…

I imagine Microsoft took the intrinsic value of Yammer and added a stab at the value of the impact on Microsoft if a competitor, say, Google bought Yammer.

There's just too much we don't know, meaning that any comment we make here amounts to little more than meaningless speculation. Unless someone has a credible source?

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#88

Post by alexscheelmeyer »

pbreit wrote: post #78
alexscheelmeyer wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am one who thinks "Yay! Another accelerator to the Microsoft death-spiral" when reading this. I am not sure what data it is you want me to put in my data bank, as I do not buy your premise that getting bought by Microsoft is any kind of validation. Quite the contrary. You can get rich by playing the lottery, just as you can get rich by making a crappy product that you manage to get enough hype around to get sold to…

Just so I'm clear, you're comparing spending 4 years building an extremely successful business communications company to winning the lottery? Bernie Madoff? Casual gaming? Downvote.

You can compare things on many aspects. The Zynga/Madoff comparison was on trajectory - meteoric rise followed by sharp fall. Such a trajectory characterizes the scam or fad. My point is that Yammer is a fad, Madoff was a scam and Zynga is probably a bit of both.

When a colleague of mine heard that Yammer was bought for 1 billion he exclaimed : "Oh, so THAT is what we should be doing - create a crappy product and get bought by Microsoft!". My point is that other factors than creating the crappy product is what gets you bought by Microsoft. There is no causal relationship between the quality of the product and the money received. Another similarity to Zynga/Madoff btw.

So the conclusion is that you are better off creating a quality product, despite such evidence to the contrary. Likewise you are better off providing real value to the world, despite some people getting rich by winning the lottery.

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#89

Post by thisischris »

makecheck wrote: post #23

"Sledgehammer spending" really bugs me. It says "we didn't exercise any brain cells to figure out what our purchase is actually worth, we're just throwing money at the wall because we think we can". Investors should scream at stuff like this. How many things could millions of extra dollars buy? For one thing, maybe they could have acquired 4 or 5 additional companies, patents or other IP. If there was any chance that…

Throwing around $1B also signals that Microsoft is still around and still acquiring companies.

Re: Yammer agrees to Microsoft's $1 billion acquisition offer

#90

Post by antidoh »

rayval wrote: post #21

Yammer is Microsoft's Instagram, and not just because of the same price tag. As did Facebook, Microsoft is buying market traction, user engagement, brand equity, UX chops, and vision.

Now just Google left to declare a company worth $1B and buy it.

It's getting expensive to keep up appearances.

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