Had Microsoft's acquisition strategy been different, they could have significantly boosted WM's hopes. The lack of official apps for Whatsapp and Instagram on WP were user's biggest complaints by far. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 and Whatsapp in 2014 for a combined total of $20 billion.
In roughly the same period, Microsoft bought Skype, Minecraft and LinkedIn for a total of around $36 billion, the bulk of that accruing to LI's price. I get that MS is enterprise-focused, but those prices seem completely out of whack with what they actually got in value. Whatsapp, Google and Apple all offer built in video chat for consumers and LI's value to anyone outside of recruiting agencies is dubious.
> LI's value to anyone outside of recruiting agencies is dubious.
This is exactly the reason why LinkedIn needed the acquisition. I agree with you that the $26B price tag makes no sense given that LinkedIn needed this deal more than Microsoft did.
> The software giant will pay $196 a share - a premium of almost 50% to Friday's closing share price.
I completely understand the acquisition of Skype which was the undisputed king of video chat in its prime. It has since languished for any number of reasons, (probably relating to Microsoft's management but I'm not sure).
But I agree, a decent acquisition strategy could have done wonders for their ecosystem. Instead of constantly making and shutting down competitors to popular products, buy the popular ones. There was a time before now when Evernote would have been a nifty target, before they collapsed under their need to make money. There are plenty of amazing music platforms that people care about which aren't Groove.
I'd completely forgotten that Microsoft had actually bought LinkedIn. Even though now I recall seeing the news, until you mentioned it I was thinking they just had a partnership or something going on.
I agree that they overpaid but I think you are missing something big: they didn’t buy LI to improve Windows Phone, they bought it to integrate with Outlook and give their Enterprise SAAS products like Dynamics an edge in the war with Salesforce. I work at a financial firm and LI is essential to the long sales process for our applications.
In roughly the same period, Microsoft bought Skype, Minecraft and LinkedIn for a total of around $36 billion, the bulk of that accruing to LI's price. I get that MS is enterprise-focused, but those prices seem completely out of whack with what they actually got in value. Whatsapp, Google and Apple all offer built in video chat for consumers and LI's value to anyone outside of recruiting agencies is dubious.