This just in, Microsoft has acquired LinkedIn for $26 Billion in an all cash deal. People can now finally get off M.soft’s back for not having a ‘social’ play.
But refused to pay $8 billion for Slack. Seen.
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26 large ones.
Why would they pay 8billion for Slack? Makes no sense
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I just saw this on Techcabal and screamed “No way!!”
I can’t believe what I’m reading. You know, there is this reputation a company attains and you begin to think that the founder(s) can no longer sell their company. Reid Hoffman is an exemplary entrepreneur. Congratulations to LinkedIn. It’s a good deal for them.
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The paypal mafia strikes again 
In other news, Twitter has one less potential buyer now 
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RIP LinkedIn
Seems I’m the only one who isn’t surprised. Some time ago I read some articles talking about how LinkedIn was sorta losing relevance, growth rate slowing, like Twitter is right now. So, I wasn’t at all surprised to hear of the acquisition. LinkedIn needs a power greater than itself to stay afloat.
I would like to know why this is your conclusion.
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Because everyone thinks microsoft is like yahoo > Killing all acquired products
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Why I sold the company to MSFT, Jeff Weiner
Jeff Weiner’s letter to Employees mehn, long story. He just had to say the truth (or the whole truth) – In an IDGAF parlance –
“Microsoft threw a POTLOAD of money at me to become responsible for the security of our resumes. - and I really don’t give a rodent’s rectum about the fact that some employees will be laid off. I’m about to become a billionaire bruh. Time to join `em Billy meetings.”
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I just don’t trust Microsoft based on Nokia and Skype Acquisitions and how poorly they managed those projects and have led to Nokia closing shop.
Anyway, Looking at the LinkedIn deal again here are my thoughts.
Wouldnt it have been better if LinkedIn Unbundle Lynda, Slideshare and Pulse as Integrated Standalone products.
Pulse has or had the capacity to become a competitor to Medium or become an aggregate of best contents worldwide .
But, Lynda as a Tutorial Marketplace can/could leverage and be plugged in to Microsoft Learning and Dev Centre for all products and devices.
Slideshare and Office 365 is a marriage made in heaven. Post all your Microsoft notes and share immediately from a click of a button creating knowledge archives and act as companies knowledge bank and following.
A partnership would have worked better than Acquisition but well, We are mere mortals
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Interesting. Next time I get those textbook-length letters, I need to get you to summarize it in your
It was Steve Ballmer who led Microsoft’s previous largest acquisition, that of Nokia in 2013, a deal that from day one made no sense (and that was opposed by Nadella). It is that deal, though, that is perhaps the best place to start from when it comes to understanding this one.
Nadella had adroitly killed the Windows Phone business (or to put it more accurately, allowed Windows to figure out on their own that the platform had been dead from the beginning). The wind down of that business, though, and the ongoing shift of Windows to effectively “maintenance mode”, opens up room in Microsoft’s R&D budget — about 13% of revenue — for something new, so why not LinkedIn? Leaving aside the purchase price, LinkedIn slides right into the Windows Phone void when it comes to Microsoft’s investment in the future, with the benefit of being a business that has actual upside.
------------------- Microsoft and Apple Doubledown - StrateChery
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All this English still points to the fact that.
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They had a woeful investment strategy
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A Product chief who wanted the Product Dead on Arrival
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A Defective non imaginative Product to start with.
Microsoft just internally are not cut out to turn around business they buy.
Nokia hasn’t closed shop. They still exist as the Finnish company that they are and are still capable of making Nokia-branded phones if they so wish. Microsoft (like Apple) wanted to be able to control the hardware and software experience of their mobile platform and looked no further than buying the mobile division (along with a couple of factories and staff) from Nokia. It was a deal that made Nokia a lot of money, and has gave them the much needed cash they probably wouldn’t have made in the last two years from the said unit.
Bottom line: Nokia walked away with a ton of money, and a chance at a fresh start.
And you made this conclusion from the single acquisition of Nokia outside of the nearly 200 acquisitions they have made since inception (many of which have come to define the Microsoft we know today) from a company that produces game controllers that eventually morphed into the Xbox controller, to Hotmail, etc.
Microsoft’s last social purchase was Yammer in 2012 and it currently plays a large role in their enterprise suite - the same division the LinkedIn purchase would be keyed into.
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ehm truth is it isn’t really a management problem… and Nokia hasn’t closed shop. Microsoft failed to realize that no one wants to use windows on mobile(which i quite understand from Microsoft perspectives been in the OS business) and this they will solve if they finally release their new Nokia ANDROID. so that doesn’t account for poor management.
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Not quite true. Windows Phone suffers because of the scarcity of apps.
Windows Phone need large app catalogs like that of Android or Apple to attract users.
Developers need a large number of Windows Phone users to find creating apps for that ecosystem attractive.
That’s the catch 22 that’s ailing Windows Phone.
Side note: This is a fine example of deadlock, and maybe should be used instead of the Dining Philosophers’ Problem in CS curricula.
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Hehe. True!