Two days ago some news left Wall Street and international investors stunned. In a lightning deal, Microsoft acquired control of Linkedin for $196 a share, valuing the company of the popular social network for professionals at $26,2 billion.
With a brief joint note, the two companies communicated the news. Shortly thereafter, LinkedIn gained 46% on the Nasdaq, rising from $130 to $194 per share in just over an hour of trading. The aim of the company led by Satya Nadella is to revive the popularity of LinkedIn after the disappointment that arrived in the last quarter of 2015 which recorded a loss of 8,4 million dollars.
It was 1987 the year in which Bill Gates and Paul Allen, 12 years after the birth of Microsoft, decided to start their expansion project, acquiring Forthought (the company that creates PowerPoint, so to speak) for 14 million dollars. 41 years later, with LinkedIn, came the 196th annexation.
Years in which the Redmond giant managed to transform itself into one of the most important IT companies in the world, the largest software producer in the world by turnover, accompanying and leading the global technological evolution.
Over the past four decades, Microsoft has expanded from strength to strength. The official figures speak of an expenditure equal to 36,4 billion euros to complete 45 operations: 4 acquisitions completed in 2011, 7 in 2012, 8 in 2013, 10 in 2014 and above all 18 in 2015, the former under the leadership of Nadella. The 26,2 billion spent on LinkedIn are therefore added to the shopping in recent years.
It should be emphasized that, taking into consideration only 2015, and therefore excluding the last purchase, Microsoft beat all competitors: Google stopped at 16 acquisitions, Apple at 11, Twitter at 8. And 2016 shows no sign of reversing the trend started in 2010 with six acquisitions in six months.
Over the years the company has reached 22 countries, including Canada, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Thailand, New Zealand and, of course, Italy.
Among the most significant acquisitions outside the US are Navision in Denmark, Fast Search & Transfer in Norway, Mojang in Sweden and above all Skype in Luxembourg, Nokia in Finland.
The latter in particular represents one of the worst choices made in the history of the company. It was September 2014 and the Redmond giant paid out 7,2 billion dollars. The aim was to implement a synergy between software and hardware which, however, never came to fruition. In the end, Microsoft was forced to run to kidnapping, devaluing the asset which, on balance sheet, was not even worth half of what had been paid.
On the contrary, among the companies that have contributed to the development of Microsoft are undoubtedly Hotmail (acquired in 1997 for 500 million) Fast Search & Transfer, (1998, 1,2 billion dollars). Bungie Software (2000, between 20 and 40 million dollars, is the company that developed the first chapters of the famous video game Halo).
Skype deserves a separate chapter. As of three days ago, it was the most expensive acquisition in Microsoft's history at $8,5 billion spent. According to a report by AppAnnie, it is the only application that appears in the 2015 rankings of the most downloaded (fourth) and the most profitable (ninth).
