Posted on 06/13/2016 6:06:50 AM PDT by Cronos
is buying the professional social network LinkedIn for $26.2 billion (£18.5bn), the two companies have announced.
The news, announced on Monday afternoon, instantly sent LinkedIn's share price soaring by 50 percent. The deal will represent one of the biggest in Microsoft's history.
Microsoft said LinkedIn boss Jeff Weiner would stay in charge and report to Satya Nadella.
“The LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business centered on connecting the world’s professionals,” Nadella said. “Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet.”
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I posted a few minutes back on another threat that LinkedIn SUCKS.
This pretty much confirms it.
A definite WTF? I thought that with Ballmer gone the Hail Mary investments would cease.
I live on LinkedIn for my work. I’d be lost without it. Nothing’s perfect, but what sucks about it, in your opinion?
I couldn’t agree with you more. It is a venue that has no useful use as far as I’m concerned. Official ‘unofficial’ networking with a collection of users who 1) either use it as a marketing tool, or 2) those who can’t figure out anything to do with it except make ‘connections’.
“I’d be lost without it. “
Well, with Microsoft, they’ll be three thousand new features as every team tries to put “something” into the releases and none of it will work well, none will work with anything else, and all of it will be gone in six months for all new crap.
Well, like any social network it can be used for good or evil - but since 2008 I’ve noticed an overwhelming influx of Democrat “seminar posters” posing as thoughtful business executives or owners to extol the virtues of the welfare state.
I think I can convince Microsoft to buy my kitty site for a few million.
Your question wasn’t addressed to me, but I thought I’d jump in anyway.
I like the basic LinkedIn functions. I’m what they would call a freemium user—since I’m retired, I don’t need to use it intensively. It serves as a facebook substitute for me, providing self-updating contact information.
However, LinkedIn can be pushy... trying to connect you with people you didn’t ask it to, nagging about upgrades, etc.
Still... it’s nice to have, but what does MSFT see in it? My guess is that it’s a way to mine and aggregate huge amounts of personal information for targeted advertising. But $26 billion? I’d hoped the days of splashing buckets of cash earned from the existing franchise were over under the new CEO. Ballmer couldn’t find things to blow it on fast enough; Nadella seemed smarter and more prudent.
Well in the case of their Nokia-moronic buy it was about the opposite, they didn’t do anything and it tanked.
Like any social media web sites, if you use it for its intended purpose it is good. I use it to look for jobs. Suits me just fine. I pay nothing. Yes, it is very pushy trying to connect me with people I neither know or care to know, but I just click right past it.
I was just thinking about all those contacts LinkedIn people have. Myself included. Talk about a database.
I am registered with them, but never go there. It's just a Facebook clone, IMO.
Our inside sales team depends heavily on it for prospecting. I use it extensively in my job searches. It’s a great way to stay in touch with colleagues and the articles they are writing. I signed up in the first year and have user number 45,000. It is a great system. Hardly “sucks.”
No it’s not. Every connection I have on Linkedin is a mutually exclusive list of people vs my Facebook friends. I’ve nobody on both (except a few family members). Having a network of professionals that you’ve worked with over the years is extremely valuable, especially if you’re looking for work.
Yes, they’re similar types of applications but with a completely different target audience. Many people do a very poor job of maintaining professional networks, it is a tool to assist in that. The content I post is also very separate, professional vs personal.
Didn’t LinkedIn just announce that they weren’t making as much money as expected?
well, I think this purchase make sense with the MS strategy around Azure.
Now if you don't have a profile on Linkedin, you are not really a candidate for any IT job
They’ll probably do what they did with Skype. Turn it into cpu sucking spyware that I wouldn’t install for money.
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