Carlton Doty says, “Okay, you’ve read countless opinion pieces on the blockbuster deal where Microsoft paid a notable (nearly 9x) premium for LinkedIn. One could argue that it’s about time someone snatched up LinkedIn…that was my initial reaction, and perhaps yours too. But why Microsoft, and why now? Well, it should be obvious that this is a B2B play. In fact, our own Melissa Parrish eloquently outlined the minimal relevance to B2C firms in her blog post yesterday. However, this morning, Melissa and several other colleagues here at Forrester published our quick take on what this... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “While much of the talk about Microsoft’s plans to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash, announced Monday, has focused on beefing up its cloud business, there’s much to be considered for advertisers, particularly B2B advertisers. In past years, Bing Ads executives have talked about the breadth of user data that Microsoft has spanning work and personal accounts and hinted at a newfound willingness to open access to that data vault for ad targeting under Satya Nadella. In 2014, David Pann, Bing’s General Manager, told me in an interview that they were looking at ways... [...]

Melissa Parrish says, “The second the story broke about Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, everybody you can think of who has any kind of an opinion about either company, social media, business productivity, enterprise software, the stock market, data and mergers & acquisitions in general has weighed in on the deal’s implications for their areas of expertise. Ordinarily this would inspire some serious eye-rolling in me, but in this case it’s warranted because Microsoft has its hands in so many businesses and enterprise applications, and LinkedIn has so much consumer... [...]

Matt Weinberger says, “In January 2016, Microsoft’s venture capital arm got a new boss in the form of Qualcomm veteran Nagraj Kashyap. In a new blog post, Kashyap lays out the changes coming to Microsoft Ventures — namely, that it’ll be focusing a lot more on early-stage startups — and explains the tech titan’s overall investment philosophy. Here’s the short version: Microsoft is looking for startups that can boost its most important products, including Windows, Office 365, the Azure cloud computing platform, and even the futuristic HoloLens holographic... [...]

Billy Hoffman says, “With the release of Windows 10, the general public can now use Microsoft Edge, Microsoft’s new flagship web browser. Microsoft is striking out in new directions with Edge — they’re deprecating Internet Explorer for all modern platforms. Such a drastic change is rare in the web development world, so it makes sense to take a moment to understand what this change means. In this article, we’ll discuss Microsoft Edge and see how it removes many of the annoying issues of cross-browser development, making it easier for SEO professionals to focus their time... [...]

Nina Zipkin says, “Microsoft just launched PowerApps, a new suite of tools for businesses that allows users to create Android, iOS and web apps with templates, so no coding knowledge is necessary. When creating an app on the platform, businesses can access data from existing cloud services such as Dropbox, Dynamics CRM,Office 365 OneDrive and Salesforce. “Customers have built solutions ranging from a recruiting app for an internal team to a mobile app for banking employees that connects to their [customer-relationship management] data,” Bill Staples, Microsoft’s corporate vice president... [...]

Christina Warren says, “In the 20 months since Satya Nadella took over Microsoft, we’ve seen the company go through a lot of changes. Microsoft has slumped over the last decade and its doing everything it can to make sure it doesn’t fall short over the next ten years. Part of ensuring a win moving forward is keeping the public interested in what it is doing. That’s a challenge Microsoft overcame Tuesday at what we expected would be the Surface Pro 4 event, but turned out to be the Surface Book event. For the first time in what feels like a long time, Microsoft managed to... [...]

Adriana Lee says, “Microsoft needs developers to build apps for its platform, and its play to get them—by helping coders port iOS and Android apps to Windows—just took a big step forward: On Thursday, the Redmond, Washington–based tech company released its iPhone app porting tool, Windows Bridge for iOS, as an open-source public preview. The company knows that attracting mobile app makers can be an uphill climb. With the new tool, Microsoft hopes to encourage more support by offering a simple way to make Windows apps out of existing apps. Android developers also get Windows Bridge for Android,... [...]

Kimberly Truong says, “Windows 10, Microsoft’s highly-anticipated upgrade, both looks ahead and harks back to the good old days. The system includes revamped versions of older features, like a redesigned Start menu that includes your most-used apps and PC settings, along with a set of customizable live tiles for your apps. See also: Windows 10 review: A needed upgrade with missing pieces The upgrade is also equipped with a suite of new features, including Cortana, Microsoft’s personal assistant feature that can help manage your schedule and answer queries — even the silly... [...]

Seth Fiegerman says, “Microsoft’s vision is to be on every screen you use. But sometimes, that vision cracks a little. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced taking a staggering $7.6 billion writedown for Nokia’s handset business, which it officially acquired just more than a year earlier for $9.5 billion with the goal of supercharging its position in the competitive smartphone market. Microsoft won’t kill off its flagship Windows phones, but it is slashing a big part of its commitment — cutting much of the staff that produced these devices and changing its strategy to focus... [...]