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Microsoft Boosts Its Chatbot Future By Acquiring Wand Labs (fastcompany.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the thing-Microsoft-buys dept.

Harry McCracken, reporting for Fast Company: On Monday, Microsoft made headlines by plunking down $26 billion for LinkedIn. Now it's announcing its second acquisition of the week: For an undisclosed sum, the company has bought Wand Labs, a Silicon Valley-based startup that declares its mission is "to tear down app walls, integrate your services in chat, and make them work together so you can do more with less taps." Founded in 2013, Wand is tiny -- it has just seven employees -- and, though no longer in stealth mode, is hardly a household name. The iOS and Android apps it built haven't yet reached general availability, and now they never will, as their creators put them aside and contribute to the greater Microsoftian effort.Wand Labs' purchase marks Microsoft's 197th acquisition of another company.

10 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. Why buy chatbots? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

    I was under the impression Microsoft is lightyears ahead of its competitors in TrollChatBot, TrashTalkBot technologies...

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Why buy chatbots? by mfh · · Score: 2

      No, Ballmer left.

      I'll see myself out.

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      The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    2. Re:Why buy chatbots? by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 2

      Now it'll be even better at making Nazi references while harassing you to join its professional network on LinkedIn.

  2. 26 BILLION Dollars! by headkase · · Score: 1

    I still can't believe they spent 26 BILLION dollars on Linkedin. Like seriously, whatever they're smoking I want some too. That amount of money is so astronomical that even if they blew the budget by 10 times they could have seriously built their own Linkedin 5 times over. Whoever approved that dollar figure is fucking insane, stupid, trying to sink the company, or all of the above.

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    Shh.
    1. Re:26 BILLION Dollars! by H3lldr0p · · Score: 1

      I've been thinking about this and I have to wonder if it isn't a way for Microsoft to repatriate some of their overseas cash in a way that doesn't hit many of the tax pitfalls that a straight up transfer would.

      Why else do it in all cash? To me a stock swap make more sense, from a perspective of a shareholder of Microsoft or of LinkedIn. Any VCs still hanging onto their LI shares now have ones that they can immediately cashout without having to file a huge pile of paperwork or they can hang onto the shares for future projects. The MS stockholders can still pressure the board to give another dividend.

      Otherwise it seems weird that such a astronomically huge amount of cash went to a company that was being valued at a fraction of it.

    2. Re:26 BILLION Dollars! by ketomax · · Score: 1

      Essentially they are paying for the community of users that will come along with it. Building your own platform doesn't guarantee you will have users. Just look at Windows Phone.

    3. Re:26 BILLION Dollars! by Thud457 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      soon, on XBox chat :

      13YOnAziPEdo : plz add me to your linkedin profile faggot

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      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    4. Re: 26 BILLION Dollars! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Does that mean we can start to expect cat videos on LinkedIn? Everyone knows you need cat videos to survive. It's been proven by science.

    5. Re:26 BILLION Dollars! by gtall · · Score: 1

      Surely the tax hit would be less than the dog's breakfast MS will make of LI. Overvaluing LI means they cannot easily unload it except in a fire sale.

      The only explanation that makes sense to me is one some industry wag mentioned: MS was scared Google or Apple would get LI and know what to do with it. MS never really understood the social media wave, they do not have any inkling on how it interacts with mobile devices since they never got those either. One presumes LI knows what they are doing in social media but I have my doubts. MS did say they were going to keep LI's management structure in place, but that won't last long once the fiefdoms in MS start looking at LI as a "resource".

    6. Re:26 BILLION Dollars! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      Well considering how poorly MS has integrated good companies like Skype and Danger, I don't doubt LinkedIn would follow the fame fate as aQuantive. While Ballmer might have left the company his penchant of simply buying a new flavor of month company hasn't left.

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      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.