To me this is all about white collar productivity tools and integrations. LNKD is the keystone that manages a users journey as users ebb and flow through using (and not using) MSFT tools and products (Word, Excel, Sharepoint, Outlook, et. al.). The journey here is starting a job, starting projects, managing and coordinating projects, completing projects, and looking for new jobs. MSFT has tools in all aspects of the lifecycle except for the time between jobs.
Therefore MSFT offering gets stronger because they can keep that relationship with you even if you leave your employer and LNKD relationship gets stronger because they gain the relationship when you're still content at your current employer. The possibilities here are really interesting from a MSFT perspective.
Here's MSFT's deck on the summary [1].
[1] https://ncmedia.azureedge.net/ncmedia/2016/06/msft_announce_...
Oracle and Salesforce own database hungry spaces like HR, CRM, etc relative to Microsoft.
As a side bonus, they get to mine an incredibly rich collection of intelligence data linking millions of professionals to influencers. I know with my employer, access to the firehouse of LinkedIn data would help them identify and cultivate relationships with future influencers whom their sales teams know zippo about.
Been like that for awhile. You're just getting to know more of the vast ocean of all the bureaucratic mindset that is out there.
Also, why would it be great for a company to exclusively maintain your resume?
- There's one widely accessible database where resumes can be found. Since many people want to be found by prospective employers, this gives them an obvious place to put it.
- The resume format can be standardized, so you can focus on meaningful differences instead of the cognitive challenges of extracting meaning from a heavily stylized document.
- There can be a commonly available API for exposing this information e.g. in job applications (see "Apply with LinkedIn", which does exist).
- Because it's a centralized database, it's more up-to-date with professional developments and changes of contact information.
Not to say that it has to be a single company, let alone a linkedin-style company, maintaining all that infrastructure. But there is definitely value to a standardized infrastructure, and a company like LinkedIn seems to be a pretty successful way to build that.
I assumed that was basically for the purpose of ignoring your resume and selling recruiters a more accurate social graph backed summary of your skillet.
I think Salesforce or IBM would be the other potential buyers, but perhaps LinkedIn would be too big for them to swallow.
Sorry to nitpick, but why isn't SAP ever mentioned in this same list? Believe it or not, but SAP does more than double that of SFDC for business software.
1. Oracle, Salesforce and IBM are all US companies, while SAP is German. That's not necessarily good or bad, but it would tend to be out of sight out of mind for this site's audience.
2. SAP is very insular, in a way that Oracle and IBM kind of try to be but aren't really.
You cant really say it's a great purchase without mentioning the price, which you didn't. I haven't done any deep analysis but my gut feeling says that 26.2B for stopping Linkedin spam is not worth it.
Nadella has finally given up chasing the consumer market -- this is a very good thing if you're a Microsoft shareholder. The company has never done well with consumers; Xbox is their lone success, and it took them a decade and a half to become profitable (and even then, it's tiny compared to their business products). The strength of the company is their enterprise sales organization, which they can use to drive new products to their existing customers. Google, Apple and Amazon don't have that; but Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, etc. do. Focusing on that is their only way to grow at this point.
More thoughts on that here: https://medium.com/@ux/will-linkedin-and-microsofts-new-play...
This acquisition will transform Microsoft into a major bay area Employeer, with >10k people working in the region.
Microsoft is a traditional B2B company; they make boring enterprise software and sell it through traditional resellers. As more and more core business functions (like HR managed services) start being sold through these channels, it makes more and more sense for Microsoft to get into it. More importantly, Microsoft already has a sales relationship with nearly every company in the world -- and they can now cram a high-margin talent acquisition / management product down that sales pipe as well.
IMO this is one of those acquisitions that wouldn't have made sense for Apple, Google or Facebook -- their customer base is too consumer-centric. But given Microsoft's heavy enterprise sales base, it absolutely makes sense for them. Nadella has finally gotten Microsoft to realize it's not really competing with Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook -- its real competition is Oracle, Salesforce and IBM. Viewed through that lens, this is a great purchase.