Microsoft and its two most recent acquisitions
The tech giant, Microsoft, has been on a shopping spree this month of June. Here is the breakdown of how much they spent and which companies they acquired.
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As a well established company with a strong market presence and profitability, the company has a strong purchasing power and growth aspirations. In the past month, the multinational organization has been on a growth and spending spree.
Microsoft bought the leading player in the professional social media network, LinkedIn for 26 billion. You read that right… USD$ 26,000,000,000!!!
Three days after, on June 16 TechCrunch reported that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) also acquired Wand Labs. Microsoft sees this acquisition as a strategical one, as David Ku,Corporate Vice President, Information Platform Group, expresses in his blog post: “This acquisition accelerates our vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform”
Microsoft has built itself a portfolio of successful acquisitions. A prime example of this is its acquisition of Skype, the second most valuable European Startup. On the other hand, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer called the company’s ill-fated purchase of Finnish cell phone maker Nokia “a bold step into the future” in 2003… Only to write down the $7.9 billion deal a year later, laying off 80% of the employees it had brought on board. Unlike Nokia though, LinkedIn is the leading company in the professional network space and could be a strategic play by Microsoft to gain insight into the data on the network’s 433 million members.
