One might say that fear rules the global stock exchanges. Britain was and still is a great country and a leading economic indicator (not being a mere follower) of what we know as western Europe. For countries that cannot compete in terms of GDP, labor population, or sheer magnitude of the economic girth of first world nations; the concept of sharing labor pools (along with labor law restrictions), trade, and distributed wealth (in terms of country-to-country financial loans) seems like a really good idea...that is if the demand for products and services produced by your home country can keep up with all the other countries within that trading region.
In 1998, I took my first trip outside the US; specifically to visit a few countries along the western Caribbean. While food was ridiculously cheap on the eastern coast of Mexico, the same could not be said for the island nations that were still on the British standard of currency. A conch sandwich and a small bowl of turtle soup costed £16 (more than $25 US).
The single biggest benefit to Americans is the rising strength of the US dollar against the British pound and the Euro; effectively making European goods/services cheaper to acquire. The closer we get to a 1:1 ratio, the cheaper it is for Americans to travel to the UK and Britain-managed territories. This isn't limited to travel. Foreign car imports will also be cheaper than they are now. Our domestic automotive dealerships benefit from the weakening Euro in this regard. However, it is still ridiculously expensive to travel from the US to Europe with air fares at more than $1,500/pp one-way.
Something else to consider are the other wealthy European countries that were never part of the EU and continue to flourish such as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Turkey, and others.
At the time I wrote this, the currency exchange rate was::
$10 USD = £ 7.57 = € 9.08
In 1998, $10 USD = £ 6.50
In 2008, $10 USD = € 6.50
If you are an infrequent international traveler, you might think to yourself: Meh, what's the big deal with paying a little bit more for the experience, for goods/services that are only available in the visited country, etc.
Microsoft doesn't just acquire companies
$26.2 B looks reasonable for the patents and trademarks that Microsoft is acquiring with its latest purchase. Why build software yourself when you can buy it cheaper from someone else? Besides, this is an acquisition war for enterprise software and LinkedIn is not just a software platform for recruiters and job seekers. A stockpile of cash doesn't do anyone any good if it just sits around collecting interest. $26.2 is a price that no one being acquired would complain about. You might even consider this purchase a waste if you were writing for Forbes. But, that is not the case. Here's what Microsoft also gets with that deal.
CXO talent:
LinkedIn's acquisitions (source):
The other cake trimmings:
CXO talent:
- Jeff Weiner is retained as CEO of subsidiary LinkedIn (ranks at #5 on Glassdoor's Highest Rated CEOs in 2016) - how does that saying go? Employees quit leaders, not companies (via TalentCulture). This is a retention tactic used by Warren Buffett, who often lets senior management stay at the acquired company if that company is managed well.
LinkedIn's acquisitions (source):
- 15 Digg patents (purchased for a mere $4 M)
- mspoke
- ChoiceVendor
- CardMunch
- Connected
- IndexTank
- Rapportive
- SlideShare
- Pulse
- Bright
- Newsle
- Bizo
- Careerify
- Refresh.io
- Lynda.com
- Fliptop
- Connectifier
The other cake trimmings:
- This is the primary feature that sets LinkedIn apart: it allows online services to be marketed to users within a network. Many companies struggle with this concept and network-wide implementation.
- LinkedIn's app portfolio - mobile authentication, user feature that allows attachments from mobile phones, user feature that effortlessly allows users of any status (basic, premium) to connect with any user on LinkedIn's primary platform. Apps include:
- LinkedIn - a lite version of the LinkedIn website for users, a basic user lookup tool
- LinkedIn Lookup - a bio-hacker for professionals for skills and experience
- Lynda.com - eLearning on the go
- LinkedIn SlideShare - shareable presentations
- LinkedIn Groups - professional and industry interest networking
- LinkedIn Pulse - business news
- (premium) LinkedIn Recruiter
- (premium) LinkedIn Sales Naviator - the sales lead engine for selling on LinkedIn
- (premium) LinkedIn Elevate - reputation building by content sharing
- The LinkedIn Brand - the web/mobile properties under the LinkedIn umbrella have mostly been well managed, both from an integration and public relations perspective; nothing bad can happen from adding this to the Microsoft portfolio, unless the integration between the subsidiary and the parent fails to mesh
The acquisition makes sense. Who else could have purchased LinkedIn? Any of the top 50 companies amassing stockpiles of cash.
And as for LinkedIn's 9,200 employees? I expect nearly all of them to get laid off at some point as Microsoft sheds dead weight from overlapping operations it wasn't keen on picking up with this purchase.
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