The internet was set ablaze this week when Microsoft announced its acquisition of LinkedIn.
The all cash buy out set Microsoft back US$ 26.2 billion for a professional social network that hosts nearly half a billion members that are interested in finding a new job. Display sales are so underwhelming for brands that often the inventory is taken over by ads from LinkedIn itself … marketing its inventory. In 2014, it posted a net loss of US$ 15 million and in 2015 that number rose to US$ 166 million.
From a strategic standpoint, the data has immense value. Since the acquisition was announced, strategy meetings have taken center stage at major:
- enterprise cloud (Amazon, Google)
- CRM (Salesforce, Oracle)
- recruiting software (Taleo, SAP)
- online education (Coursera, Udemy)
companies across the world.
With this much access to the data, Microsoft can dominate B2B Sales. It’s not like they’ve had much luck understanding platforms outside their immediate reach.
Former customers of Microsoft were concerned if LinkedIn was now going to be used as a channel to sell Microsoft’s software. Case in point, the extremely nugatory Windows 10 or the search engine Bing. It’s not like the user experience was bad enough.
Like Facebook’s colossal dick move, now LinkedIn wants users to upgrade to premium in order to search their own contacts. This is one of the many reasons the internet reacted:
Jeff Lofvers of Don’t Hit Save thinks Microsoft will redefine spam marketing
Some have suggested blackmail
While others suspect extortion
All joking aside, it is often the case that a company stops innovating after being acquired by a titan. The best example of this is Skype. It was doing well on its own. Then eBay acquired it and it withered. Then it gained independence and soared. But then Microsoft stepped in and now its a heaping pile of an innovation fail.
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What do you think the LinkedIn experience will be like under the watchful eye of Microsoft? Sound away in the comments below.