Microsoft Way Off On Facebook
By Rob Safuto on Oct 25, 2007 in Social Networks |
How in the world can Microsoft justify $240 million for a measly 1.6% of Facebook? Didn’t News Corp. buy 100% of the much more popular MySpace for around $500 million just two years ago?
I’m looking at this from the perspective of someone who is analyzing Microsoft’s plays in the area of the social web. I’ve stated before that they have been far behind the curve. To this day they are playing a sad game of catch up. This week Microsoft has been rocking the world with announcements like the Facebook blockbuster (where they have basically paid to get an advertising client) and one-click subscriptions for podcasts on the Zune. They’re only two years plus behind Apple on that podcast subscription thing.
I am definitely being hard on Microsoft here. I’ve been a user of Windows for a very long time and it seems like all the promises of a great future for the operating system never seem to come to pass. How’s Vista doing? Great if you ask Microsoft. Poorly if you ask business users. Ditto for Microsoft’s tools on the web. MS search, email and blogging are all very weak compared to the competition.
Instead of sinking $240 million into an ad deal with Facebook or jumping into a doomed portable media device I think that Microsoft should be spending copious amounts of time and money in getting their operating system and web tools in order.
