Microsoft Buys LinkedIn for 26 Billion - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

polak · 06-13-2016, 10:44 AM

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/13/micro...-linkedin.html

Quote:

Microsoft announced a $26.2 billion deal on Monday to acquire professional social platform LinkedIn for $196 per share.
Shares of LinkedIn surged 47 percent after the announcement to near $193, while Microsoft's stock was down 3.2 percent. Trading in Microsoft had been halted briefly for news pending before the announcement of the all-cash deal.

These tech valuations are insane. So little in tangible assets to back that insane amount of money up.

MelBridgeman · 06-13-2016, 10:46 AM

Personal information is worth $$$$$$$$$$

Fuzz · 06-13-2016, 10:50 AM

MS is so good at throwing away money. Remember Nokia? At least it got some patents with that. This is just data. MS seams absolutely desperate for mass amounts of data these days, can they really capitalize that before collapsing?

peter12 · 06-13-2016, 10:51 AM

Microsoft is sitting on insane amounts of cash, so snaffling up LinkedIn for this amount is nothing to them. That said, LinkedIn is just the worst. Basically very little worth right now for the user trying to utilize it for its original purpose.

This is really just another sign of the increasing monopolization of the global tech industry. Right now, it is basically Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

GGG · 06-13-2016, 10:52 AM

Isn't that like $1000 per user? If Microsoft paid me $1000 I would give them all that data and more.

OMG!WTF! · 06-13-2016, 10:53 AM

I bought lnkd on Thursday at 138 but sold by the end of the day for a small loss. I was so bummed this morning. Insider buying but no follow through trade at all.

mrkajz44 · 06-13-2016, 10:56 AM

That is a crazy price. Gross revenue in 2015 was $3B, so they paid almost 9x gross revenue?? To top it off, that $3B in revenue produced a net loss of $166M. The price makes no sense.

All I can think of is Kevin O'Leary yelling "That valuation is insane! I'm out!"

Azure · 06-13-2016, 11:01 AM

Data only matters if you can do something with it. What exactly will Microsoft do with a Facebook for business clone?

Not sure how this makes sense. Buying Nokia made sense because it was hardware, something Microsoft had done for years.

Slava · 06-13-2016, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

Data only matters if you can do something with it. What exactly will Microsoft do with a Facebook for business clone?

Not sure how this makes sense. Buying Nokia made sense because it was hardware, something Microsoft had done for years.

I thought that this was a pretty crazy purchase but then I read this article and in some ways it makes a lot of sense. LinkedIn becomes useful if its data is somehow useful to the users instead of just being Facebook for business. I guess we'll see, but this is the one point that makes sense to me :http://www.pcworld.com/article/30830...d-cortana.html

corporatejay · 06-13-2016, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I bought lnkd on Thursday at 138 but sold by the end of the day for a small loss. I was so bummed this morning. Insider buying but no follow through trade at all.

This is the equivalent of "oh no, ____ is on my fantasy team".

corporatejay · 06-13-2016, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

Data only matters if you can do something with it. What exactly will Microsoft do with a Facebook for business clone?

Not sure how this makes sense. Buying Nokia made sense because it was hardware, something Microsoft had done for years.

Yes, there is no money in software or information. Hardware is where the real cash is.

OldDutch · 06-13-2016, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

I thought that this was a pretty crazy purchase but then I read this article and in some ways it makes a lot of sense. LinkedIn becomes useful if its data is somehow useful to the users instead of just being Facebook for business. I guess we'll see, but this is the one point that makes sense to me :http://www.pcworld.com/article/30830...d-cortana.html

Yes this is exactly why. LinkedIn is all ready starting to push this feature, I get the pop up to ask if I want to let it use my calendar to cross reference with Linked In profiles to get ice breakers.

As a person who (has to) look for conversation starters like this I think it is a very valuable tool. That said I haven't turned it on or used it yet. It also creeps me out with the disingenuous nature of doing that. That said this could be a gold mine for a lot of folks.

polak · 06-13-2016, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Personal information is worth $$$$$$$$$$

Is it though? I don't see how the data people are posting on LinkedIn is that valuable. I guess I might not be using LinkedIN to it's full potential though.

SeeGeeWhy · 06-13-2016, 12:50 PM

What AI tech had linked in purchased prior to this acquisition?

topfiverecords · 06-13-2016, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I bought lnkd on Thursday at 138 but sold by the end of the day for a small loss. I was so bummed this morning. Insider buying but no follow through trade at all.

I logged into my account on lnkd yesterday but then signed out soon after because I realized it's of little use. That's why your value went down by the end of the day.

Azure · 06-13-2016, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

I thought that this was a pretty crazy purchase but then I read this article and in some ways it makes a lot of sense. LinkedIn becomes useful if its data is somehow useful to the users instead of just being Facebook for business. I guess we'll see, but this is the one point that makes sense to me :http://www.pcworld.com/article/30830...d-cortana.html

Makes sense. With everything moving to the cloud Microsoft is highly competitive with Google to get businesses signed up to Office 365. There are around 1.2 billion office users, but only 80 million actual Office 365 subscribers, so Microsoft has huge potential to increase their subscriber base.

Even if they just get half of those people onto Office 365 paying $20/month for basic Office and email, that is HUGE potential cash cow. Well worth the $26 billion that it cost to buy Linkedin. They could make that back in 2 months.

Ozy_Flame · 06-13-2016, 10:19 PM

My guess is a long term vision of AD integration with Office 365 and huge amounts of BI potential for internal data mining. LinkedIn users will likely get a discount subscription in the short term to their home and business packages.

Wormius · 06-13-2016, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polak

Is it though? I don't see how the data people are posting on LinkedIn is that valuable. I guess I might not be using LinkedIN to it's full potential though.

It's real names, real email addresses, easily ascertained incomes, and job history. And then on top of that, MS can link that to everything it knows about you.

Fuzz · 06-14-2016, 06:31 AM

How valuable is that really though? Sure they can sell it to advertisers, but hackers have been getting less that $1 for stolen credit card and personal identity info for years, and that can be used to steel real money. Is $1000 for some personal history per user really ever going to pay off?

Slava · 06-14-2016, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fuzz

How valuable is that really though? Sure they can sell it to advertisers, but hackers have been getting less that $1 for stolen credit card and personal identity info for years, and that can be used to steel real money. Is $1000 for some personal history per user really ever going to pay off?

That $1000 seems overblown though. One estimate yesterday said $60/user which is much more reasonable.