Microsoft should not be acting old and grey.
Yet they are throwing away another $26.2 billion dollars in purchasing the relative revenue and profit weakling, LinkedIn, the professional networking social media site (where odds are you have your high-level resume-type information).
Have you ever paid a dime to LinkedIn or have you ever paid attention to single advertisement on LinkedIn (I can’t even remember if there is advertising on there—see I pay it zero attention!)?
Unfortunately Microsoft is following suite with it’s worthless purchase of Nokia in September 2013 for $9.4 billion that was all written off and then some with yet another ridiculous, desperate move.
Microsoft has been living off their legacy product suites of Windows, Office, Outlook, and SharePoint for years…and apparently, aside from the regular forced upgrades, they seem to have virtually nothing in the innovation hopper.
Hence, loser acquisitions of things like Yammer in 2012 for $1.2 billion (anyone use that BS Facebook-like service for inside their organization—work is not social playtime folks!).
Anyway, I like Microsoft products--they are functional, which is what I want from email, creating and editing documents, spreadsheets and slides, as well as sharing files--it's great for bread and butter tasks--nothing sexy.
But every attempt that Microsoft makes in desperation to expand beyond their core competencies comes up soft and a big money loser.
Innovation and success is not bred by acquiring virtually worthless properties in terms of high-technology with no synergy to who they fundamentally are.
It is almost heartbreaking to see a once great company like Microsoft continue to drown in its own excess cash and strategically hollow ideas.
Microsoft will only be successful by thinking beyond the boxed in windowed organization that they have imprisoned themselves in.
I hope they can break a few windows and escape to some new technological thinking again soon--but the big question is whether they currently have the talent to make it so. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)