Microsoft To Buy Yammer?

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft seems to have a pocketful of billions sitting around. First Skype, now Yammer – an enterprise social network service launched back in September 2008 that looks almost like Facebook minus the title bars. According to Bloomberg, the deal could reach up to a billion dollars. To date, Yammer claims 200,000 companies which include more than 400 of the 500 Fortune companies. One reason for the purchase may stem from their social-like Sharepoint platform which has been a lost cause to solutions by Salesforce.com and Oracle."

Comments

Re:What's the point?

[Jason Levine]

I think part of it is:

- Startup comes up with interesting idea, sees growth in business.
- Big Corp sees startup's success and thinks "I want a piece of that action."
- Big Corp buys Startup.
- Big Corp sees growth due to Startup.

So far so good, until either:

- Big Corp decides to alter Startup to "make it better fit into our corporate structure."
- Users flee Startup as it looks like boring Big Corp site.
- Big Corp scratches head in wonderment as to why Startup is a failure, kills Startup.
- Big Corp looks for another startup to buy.

Or:

- Big Corp doesn't give Startup resources/leeway to grow.
- Startup is overtaken by other startups.
- Big Corp scratches head in wonderment as to why Startup is a failure, kills Startup.
- Big Corp looks for another startup to buy.

TFA got Salesforce wrong

[cberetz]

Contrary to the claim of the blurb, Salesforce Chatter integrates into Sharepoint. I am a Salesforce emp and we have plenty of customer references I'd be happy to bring out.