Microsoft just tossed away $26 billion buying linkedin ....

felixbocharov said:
Most idiotic acquisition in history.
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Remember the bid in 2008 for YHOO? Softie offered a staggering $44.6 billion at the time. The deal didn't go through as Jerry Yang, former CEO of YHOO rejected the $31/share offer.

YHOO shares ended up dropping over 50% before Mayer eventually took the role of CEO at YHOO and grew the firm back into the pre-MSFT buyout price, while also acquiring a $6 billion stake in BABA.

I'm not sure which offer was more idiotic, the YHOO offer or the one they just did for LNKD?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/01/technology/microsoft_yahoo/
 
Another MSFT blunder on Bill Gates part.

In Paul Allen's book "Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft" he mention that back in 1982 after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma he offered all his MSFT shares to Bill Gates for $10.00, Bill Gates counter-offered at $5.00 - Paul Allen declined and kept his shares instead.




:)
 
S2007S said:
Microsoft over the past 20 years always seems to be behind the curve in everything they try to achieve in the new updated tech world. Again that $26 billion could have gone to something much more worthwhile than linkedin....
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You'd have criticized anything they did with the money. Stock buy backs you'd have claimed they were artificially pumping up their stock price. Bigger dividend, well is 3% yield not enough for you ? If MSFT stock were to tumble, as you often predict for all stocks, that yield would grow and dwarf your savings accounts.

So tell me, what should they have done with the $26 billion ? They decided to try to be a dominant player in social media for business. Might work out, or might be real bad. They can afford it. The number of users involved and cash involved in these new IT areas is massive and hard to understand. I'll be damned if I get my head around the money that GOOG and FB make, but it's real. My only take on this is being #1-#3 globally in any tech area involving the net seems to be really lucrative these days. And anything less then that can quickly put you out of business.

For example, AMZN is massive and is finally monetizing their growing market share. They are literally driving many traditional retail companies right out of business. IBM is in gradual decline because they are losing the war in certain new areas. LinkedIn looked pretty Mickey Mouse to me years ago but it's become the go to place for many professionals.

This deal may upset some MSFT shareholders, maybe even rightly so, they could have benefited from a cash cow monster dividend. But current shareholders have done well and could exit their position today and lose at most 1-2%. LNKD shareholders did real well today. Remember GOOG used to just be some freeware search engine that I used before 99% of people did ( word of mouth in the IT community ) and there was no indication they would become huge.
 
OptionGuru said:
Another MSFT blunder on Bill Gates part.

In Paul Allen's book "Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft" he mention that back in 1982 after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma he offered all his MSFT shares to Bill Gates for $10.00, Bill Gates counter-offered at $5.00 - Paul Allen declined and kept his shares instead.

:)
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A guy like Gates had so much money he could make any number of "mistakes" and still be fine. In fact, it's hard in retrospect to evaluate decisions because the personal risk parameters involved are not clear ( one decision impacts on others ) and sometimes you have to move very quickly in IT. My take on my IT experiences is you have to make hay when the going is good and you have an edge, and not worry about what something is truly worth. It's a feast or famine business that changes rapidly and oligopolies or monopolies in needed services/skills/products generate massive profits or hourly rates. Gates obviously was good at seizing opportunities when he needed to.
 
Baron said:
LinkedIn is the biggest spam-a-thon I've ever seen. I can't stand that site. Maybe MSFT can do something constructive with it.
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Many professionals would disagree with you. I would suggest there are massive changes going on in IT and related areas at this time, and, unlike in the late 1990s, there are a few big players who know how to make gobs of money using the internet as a resource. It seems like smaller and even medium sized firms are getting killed these days unless they are not for profit. I don't think we can begin to understand these dynamic moves unless we are insiders with the numbers and projects in front of us. Best not to invest in things we don't understand of course.
 
Nobody around me uses WhatsApp for voice calls because the quality is not yet good enough. Dropped calls, bandwidth limitations. I believe Skype's data compression algorithm is probably the best still now. Everyone does use WhatsApp for texting though. For local calls people around me just use their mobile and for non local, Skype.
Low Salubrity Thug said:
Nope. It simply comes down to size of the userbase. WhatsApp has 1.1bn whereas Skype has 300m. WhatsApp is growing whereas Skype is stagnating. WhatsApp has the entire Skype feature set clearly in their sights. They've already delivered voice calls. Video calls is next. Interfacing with the fixed line networks will surely follow. They are a juggernaut and Facebook has stated they bought WhatsApp to take on Microsoft in this arena.

Tell you what. I'll stick a reminder in my phone to revisit this thread in 2 years time. If WhatsApp haven't taken huge chunks out of Skype I'll eat humble pie. ;)
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Hmm, gotta disagree with you here. First, just because one has 26bln lying around does not mean it has to be invested in inferior projects. Why am I saying inferior? Because MSFT should for once admit to itself that it does not understand social media. It's simply not their thing. They now have the incredible chance to be a dominant and powerful player in AI and that is what they should focus on. Each time they tried their hands on social media they got burned. Each try at mobile burned them too. There is a world of opportunities out there away from social media. Why investing in the one area MSFT knows nothing about. It's not like LinkedIn is the social media king and is gonna teach MSFT a lesson or two.

Worst investment ever for MSFT.
Nine_Ender said:
You'd have criticized anything they did with the money. Stock buy backs you'd have claimed they were artificially pumping up their stock price. Bigger dividend, well is 3% yield not enough for you ? If MSFT stock were to tumble, as you often predict for all stocks, that yield would grow and dwarf your savings accounts.

So tell me, what should they have done with the $26 billion ? They decided to try to be a dominant player in social media for business. Might work out, or might be real bad. They can afford it. The number of users involved and cash involved in these new IT areas is massive and hard to understand. I'll be damned if I get my head around the money that GOOG and FB make, but it's real. My only take on this is being #1-#3 globally in any tech area involving the net seems to be really lucrative these days. And anything less then that can quickly put you out of business.

For example, AMZN is massive and is finally monetizing their growing market share. They are literally driving many traditional retail companies right out of business. IBM is in gradual decline because they are losing the war in certain new areas. LinkedIn looked pretty Mickey Mouse to me years ago but it's become the go to place for many professionals.

This deal may upset some MSFT shareholders, maybe even rightly so, they could have benefited from a cash cow monster dividend. But current shareholders have done well and could exit their position today and lose at most 1-2%. LNKD shareholders did real well today. Remember GOOG used to just be some freeware search engine that I used before 99% of people did ( word of mouth in the IT community ) and there was no indication they would become huge.
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