I don’t get why this $26 billion deal makes sense. I guess it is like buying Facebook or You Tube but without any retail consumers. I use Twitter solely to receive business and sports information and “follow” people and organizations whose opinion I admire. I do not use Facebook because I want to be private and don’t need new friends. I love You Tube because it makes me look smart on home improvement projects like how to charge a car battery without shocking yourself or how to replace a faucet washer without stripping the reverse threading. To the contrary, I don’t use Linked In for anything.
Luckily, before I posted this blog I met with a young man who is looking to change his career from investment banking to private equity and he explained to me that Linked In is an important resource and community for younger people who are trying to create new, and utilize existing, professional networks. Other younger people in our office roll their eyes and give me that “you are a caveman” look. Our office manager suggests that this is a valuable network because it is mostly professionals who already know how to use the Microsoft suite of products and find Linked In a safe environment for networking without fear of commercial solicitation. Obviously, this is a generational thing and I should stick to what I know which is the analog form of networking that involved shaking hands and looking people in the eye.
According to the WSJ Microsoft’s CEO explains that the deal is “the coming together of the professional cloud and the professional network.” I am not sure what that means but the WSJ thinks it involves toggling between our productivity software and our social networks. In my case I am a pretty shabby user of productivity tools and an even dumber user of social networks but I get why using Outlook is immensely helpful. It allows me to enter addresses on the Outlook calendar that I can then click from my car during a thunderstorm to launch Google maps for my destination without much risk of running into those orange barrels that are more prevalent than locusts. It allows me to invite a group of people to a meeting and to manage changes to that meeting. Of course it allows me to send and receive email and thousands of junk mail solicitations. My new favorite feature is “clutter” where all my golf invitations go and where I can search for music, vintage wines and Russian Brides. If you want to send someone an important email that you really don’t want them to read just include some vague reference to the things no network administrator will allow-sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Back to Linked In, I get friended on LinkedIn all the time even though it is not called that. I usually accept the invitation to join because it does not require me do anything. I also am rated by the people who friended me but it is amazing how little they know about what I really do because I am always getting endorsements for venture capital? In short I am not sure what to do with Linked IN.
I also don’t understand why this database on 400 million users is really valuable. Google can take me anywhere in the world both through Google Earth and also on my calendar and it can also track me like the CIA and NSA. Twitter can give me alerts when Indians relievers give up walk off home runs and then Terry Pluto can interpret the perils of grooving a fastball at 0-2. Amazon knows that I like Asics sports shoes and will buy whenever there is free shipping. You Tube saves my marriage by empowering me to execute plumbing and electrical miracles. For me, Linked In lets people I already know “friend me” so I can accept and then see a list of people I don’t know who want to be linked in to me. I had not realized that this is really not about me. All this activity is really about my networks and a quick and easy way for business people who don’t know each other to connect with my validation.
Obviously I missed the $26 Billion opportunity which by all accounts is a big miss! I am also sure that toggling between productivity tools and professional networks will drive MSFT’s revenues and profits. One of my partners told me that the merger really creates a 3 dimensional customer relationship software product by cross connecting each of your Outlook contacts to their Linked In networks. Another 1+1=3 deal.
I am beginning to get it, but now better identify with my parents confusion after we all watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show and two weeks later my brothers and I had wigs, guitars and knew all the lyrics to “Meet the Beatles”. Microsoft and Linked In are probably as compelling as the Beatles but I just don’t know it yet.
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