Microsoft buys linkedin

LinkedIn is like the 'corporate' version of Facebook, and that's the direction MS have been going lately. So I can kinda see this working well for MS, especially with Outlook / Office 360 integration.
 
It'll have been financed as a debt with extremely low interest. As long as LinkedIn continues to turn profit and this exceeds the interest rate they get on the loan then its sound investment.

Add to the fact strategically its going to drive forwards their 365/dynamics direction its not that strange!
 
Probably include a subscription if you don't want to get contacted by spammers.



Could be an interesting move see how they incorporate it. Hopefully it doesn't get to the irritating levels of to use visual studio you must sign in with a LinkedIn account.
 
Integrate LinkedIn with Yammer and the rest of 365 as part of their cloud and enterprise strategy? One social network incorporating internal and external networks? Don't see what's strange about that - sounds like a shrewd move...

/Salsa
 
Salsa said:
Integrate LinkedIn with Yammer and the rest of 365 as part of their cloud and enterprise strategy? One social network incorporating internal and external networks? Don't see what's strange about that - sounds like a shrewd move...

/Salsa
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Exactly what I thought they would do when I heard they bought Linkedin.

Makes perfect sense.
 
Caged said:
I can't wait for them to roll it into Office 365 so people will have a choice of posting irrelevant junk on my Yammer, LinkedIn or the SharePoint profile page.
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Quite. I had to sit through a 2 hours Office 365 presentation the other day, delivered by MS.

It was all "web 2.0!" "social media!" "give your colleague a gold star, and comment on his video!"

I despair. The *last* thing you want in a proper productivity suite is social media McGuffins.
 
Another Microsoft overspend. They're constantly playing catch-up on the market. Remember their Zune player, a copy-cat on the back of the Ipods success.
 
fez said:
Absolutely astounding. Values each user at about £170 which is insane. Its also wiped 2.6% off the value of MS.

They just love throwing money at companies that are not worth buying.
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lack of vision, no new game changing product to keep them at the head of the curve but a big wad of cash... so they overpay for an acquisition in order to make it look like they're still growing to the shareholders
 
G-MAN2004 said:
It's fine having the cash to throw at any investment you desire, but surely they could have negotiated that lower? How does the site even make revenue? I can't remember seeing ads on there, but I've not been on in a while.
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they do have ads, they also have premium services the users pay for
 
dowie said:
nope, they paid in cash:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...kedin-in-deal-valued-at-26-2-billion-ipe079k9
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From the link;

However, the debt-financed LinkedIn deal gave Moody’s Investors Service pause. The agency placed Microsoft’s debt rating under review for downgrade, saying the purchase will increase Microsoft’s gross debt to two times Ebitda, exceeding the 1.5 times leverage Moody’s has said could pressure the rating.

All cash deal just means it was a buy out not how they raised the funds.
 
I wouldn't see the debt as a real significant issue. Apple sits on monster amounts of cash, much of which is offshore, and raises debt because it is cheaper than repatriating the cash and paying tax on the profit.
 
FoxEye said:
It was all "web 2.0!" "social media!" "give your colleague a gold star, and comment on his video!"

I despair. The *last* thing you want in a proper productivity suite is social media McGuffins.
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*vomits*

Well, I suppsoe that explains why MS haven't made a decent OS in years, they've been too busy pratting around on social media all day.
 
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