Microsoft has swung for the fences by buying LinkedIn. Observers are waiting to see what happens, but are a bit skeptical because the purchase comes after a string of not-so-hot at bats, such as its 2013 acquisition of Nokia’s handset business, a $7.2 billion write-off; aQuantive, an online display advertising company bought for $6.3 billion; and even Skype, an $8.5 billion investment that has yet to create significant value.
Even when Microsoft created a competitive product from scratch, like in the search-engine battle, its efforts with Bing have been slow going. According to online search ranking numbers at Webroot, Bing was used to carry out 32.8 percent of all organic search inquiries in February 2016 while Google accounted for 64 percent. That said, with its purchase of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, Microsoft picks up debt, but it may be worth it in the long run because other, larger social networks, such as Facebook, Google+, Periscope, and Snapchat may have trouble integrating with its suite of software applications and could well lose some market share.
Every time Microsoft buys or makes a partnership, it loses access to other social networks, and having bought LinkedIn, future integrations, such as with Facebook, may be a fight. For some lines of communication, Microsoft simply won’t invest or integrate them into its suite of products, leaving a lot of social networks behind.
The positives for Microsoft are, however, potentially as big as the debt load. Microsoft and LinkedIn will be one. LinkedIn’s 400 million-plus users on Microsoft’s existing software suite of Office, Cortana, and Dynamics, will be able to get a LinkedIn contact or read a Pulse article, and perhaps visit Lynda.com, a training platform LinkedIn bought for $1.5 billion in 2015, without ever leaving the Microsoft stack.
For enterprise IT, the integrated stack of products might make the deal a homerun.
{e}Mazzanti Technologies plans, implements and manages all aspects of enterprise business technology. Its areas of service cover cloud and hybrid cloud, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure, network management and security, mobility solutions, business continuity, disaster recovery, and IT management.
By Carl J. Mazzanti, CEO, {e} Mazzanti Technologies
Carl Mazzanti is Co-Founder and President of eMazzanti Technologies, Microsoft’s four time Partner of the Year and one of the premier IT consulting services for businesses throughout the New York metropolitan area and internationally. Carl and his company manage over 400 active accounts ranging from professional services firms to high-end global retailers.
eMazzanti is all about delivering powerful, efficient outsourced IT services, such as computer network management and troubleshooting, managed print, PCI DSS compliance, green computing, mobile workforce technology, information security, cloud computing, and business continuity and disaster recovery.
Carl Mazzanti is also a frequent business conference speaker and technology talk show guest and contributor at Microsoft-focused events, including frequent prominent roles at the Microsoft Inspire (Worldwide Partner Conference / WPC).
Carl, a serial Entrepreneur, gives back to the community through Entrepreneur teaching engagements at Georgetown University, the company’s ocean wildlife conservation effort, the Blue Project, and Tree Mazzanti.
