Microsoft is reinventing itself as a business services company
Satya Nadella, the Microsoft chief executive’s $26 billion deal to buy LinkedIn could reinvigorate the software giant’s grip on corporate computer systems and employee interactions.
Under the leadership of relatively new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft is shifting to become a company that primarily sells online services to business customers. LinkedIn fits this new strategy perfectly, and it will help Microsoft both broaden the set of business customers it can serve and deepen the relationship with those it already serves. After all, ompanies are willing to spend considerable sums of money to find the best employees, and LinkedIn effectively has the world’s largest Rolodex of skilled professionals.
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, who will stay on in that role, said in a memo to employees that his company will function as a “fully independent entity within Microsoft,”citing the way Google and Facebook have treated prominent acquisitions such as YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-89PWn0QaaY
Let’s dive deeper into this acquisition
At the moment, one of Microsoft’s fastest-growing products is its Azure cloud computing platform. This is a subscription-based service that allows businesses to run software in Microsoft’s data centers instead of on servers they run themselves. Microsoft has also been shifting customers to Office 365, an online, subscription-based version of its productivity suite.
In short, there are two big themes to Microsoft’s reinvention. First, Microsoft is deemphasizing the consumer market and focusing on business customers. Second, Microsoft is shifting from selling individual copies of software to run on customer-owned hardware to selling online services supported by subscription fees and advertising.
At the same time, LinkedIn offers a Facebook-style newsfeed to its users. Microsoft plans to integrate this newsfeed into the Office 365 user interface, allowing users to keep track of developments in their professional network while they’re working on a spreadsheet or presentation.
Microsoft also hopes to integrate data from LinkedIn into Cortana, the personal assistant that is Microsoft’s answer to Siri and Google Now. So a future version of Cortana may be able to look up the phone number of a LinkedIn contact or tell you about mutual friends.
Microsoft says there’s a big opportunity in blurring the lines between professional networking and actually working. Working in the future willl be anything but boring.
In a presentation to investors on Monday, the companies stressed how much the two services could reinforce one another. LinkedIn has information that can help Microsoft Outlook users do last-minute prep for meetings. The same goes for a Skype call, or maybe even a document being shared through Office365. At a time when there’s a layer of social networking laid on top of just about everything, running a suite of productivity software that’s largely isolated can be a big disadvantage.By buying LinkedIn, Microsoft is giving Office a social network of its own. In theory, it’s the perfect fit, because both are focused tightly on the working world. For LinkedIn, the hope is that people will find more use for professional networking if they do it while they’re actually working.
The news is still hot and we’ll see how it will develop. We don’t expect to see more prominent step before the end of the year, since the transaction is expected to close this calendar year. So, there’s plenty of time to adapt, if any adaptation will be necessary at all. In the meantime, read official notices posted on LinkedIn and Microsoft blogs.
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