Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 billion cash

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Mind-boggling. We’ll see lots of analysis, but it looks like Steve Ballmer’s company just bought Reid Hoffman’s company. LinkedIn  runs on its own ser
[See the full post at: Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 billion cash]

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It’s game over. It looks like there will be no way to escape Windows 10 now

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Mind boggling – from a monopoly standpoint.

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How long before your LinkedIn account is only accessible through Windows 10 ;)?

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Best explanation I’ve seen so far is it’s all about the data…

http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-microsoft-just-bought-linkedin-its-all-about-the-data/

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After they bought Skype they collapsed my Skype account (separate user name, separate unique email address) with my Hotmail account details, solely because I had them open at the same time on my computer (I mentioned this a few months ago on askwoody). They then removed my Skype details and replaced them with my Hotmail details that they said I was supposed to now use for getting into Skype. I didn’t agree to that, and wanted it to be changed back to the way it was. They made it hard to find out what could be down, and made it hard to divorce the two, and warned that the customer can only do it once in lifetime or something bizarre like that. Not cool.

I have been very careful to have unique user names (as far as one can) and unique email addresses for many distinct internet services (like Ebay, Skype, email, and such), and I
HATE
the way they are steamrollering over all of that to create a DOSSIER on the individual that the person cannot stop them making.
I would seriously not be surprised if MS didn’t have my iris and fingerprints from my passport, and geolocation details from everywhere that I’ve been where I’ve signed in to anything, linked to the other data they have on me.

And I am actually NOT a naturally tinfoil-hat person! I am not a science fiction person. I do not want to think in these ways, or worry about this kind of thing. But you can’t pretend that this isn’t our new reality. And it is so maddening and scary.

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Business-oriented social network site hails deal as ‘a chance to change how the world works’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/13/linkedin-bought-by-microsoft-for-262bn-in-cash

Well, heaven knows they have enough time on their hands, twiddling their thumbs as they are, since everything else they do and own is running so smoothly.

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Cortana and Linkedin well we saw this coming.

https://blog.linkedin.com/2015/10/01/linkedin-integrates-with-cortana-in-windows-10

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The possibilities of a data mining windfall boggles the mind!

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!

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Hmm… Anyone remember a Bob Seger tune called “Feel Like a Number”? Sure seems appropriate right about now…

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I’m confused–Why are we referring to Microsoft as Steve Ballmer’s company?

I’ll be the outlier here and say that this is ho-hum. If you have signed up for LinkedIn, you have voluntarily put a certain amount of personal data out there for public consumption. What is more, it is the kind of data that helps other information gatherers validate what they scrape up off the web.

This is different from turning an existing, licensed operating system into spyware and an engine for generating sales for Microsoft using trickery and deceit.

Not that it will matter when it’s all one big motherlode of information.

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“…new opportunities will be created for monetization through individual and organization subscriptions and targeted advertising.” – Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft.

Having the content of your projects and emails scanned for specific wording, then finding an ad from a 3rd party is just what an organization or individual will consider ‘a delightful experience’!!!

This is going to be a giant ransomware magnet.

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I’m in the “fortunate” position to be able to retire soon, like in a few months, or work very part-time for 2 years before leaving.

I’ve spent my life and career in electronics and hi-tech; the excitement and innovation has been just wonderful – I really loved it.

Today, I question the relevance of all this new gadgetry and technology; I long for a more simple life. I feel that I may as well divorce from it all; I’m not sure I like where its all going…

Maybe I’m just getting old LOL -;)

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Many people don’t realize it, but Steve Ballmer is, by far, the largest non-institutional shareholder in Microsoft. He owns (last I heard) 333 million shares – 4.2% of the company – which is more than Bill Gates.

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This article is from 2 years ago, but I still found it informative, even if the main idea isn’t new to most folks.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-linkedins-people-we-may-know-feature-is-so-accurate/

“…LinkedIn wants to create the worlds first economic graph by incorporating all of the economic data across the world on a common platform and linking it together.

This means mapping the connections between people and jobs, companies and knowledge.

…Jim might have logged onto LinkedIn and then searched for your email address. LinkedIn uses email hashes to read who is sending emails to who.

…LinkedIn… knows that Jim has emailed you [to your external email address] as Jim used LinkedIn search to find your email address before he emailed you.

…Remember that unless you explicitly log out of each social networking platform every time you finish using it, you remain implicitly logged on to it at all times whilst your PC is on.

Even when you wake your PC from sleep you are still logged on to the platform.

If you use Gmail… then LinkedIn accesses that data too.

…if you publish a post on LinkedIn, then LinkedIn knows what you specialise in. It knows your keywords and your topics.

If you upload items to Slideshare — well LinkedIn owns that too.

…LinkedIn also has access to all the data in apps that you have authorised to connect with it using OAuth. Perhaps you have used your LinkedIn account to log into a service.

…[Finally,] if you have not signed out from LinkedIn, then it is collecting data from sites you visit which have either a LinkedIn plug in or an authentication request from you.

———
“Wilson noted that LinkedIn has been a disappointment because it couldn’t diversify its business.
‘The Street had lost confidence that LinkedIn would be able to significantly diversify its business. A partnership with Microsoft gives us new hope,’ said Wilson.”
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-26-2-billion-bet-on-linkedin-foreshadows-human-resources-application-move/

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Huh? No escaping Windows 10? Game Over… What???

LinkedIn access only through Windows 10?

Who cares? Really? Do we really need either? Will the world stop spinning? NO!

I’m with John… however you don’t need to be retired to say no… I don’t need internet connected door locks to be hacked, refrigerators, toasters. I can get a job just fine without LinkedIn and compute without Windows 10, try Apple, Android, Linux or just abstain for heavens sake… Geez…

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Reading the zdnet article, I took the link in it that mentioned Lynda.com and came across this tidbit:

“If you’re unfamiliar with the Economic Graph concept, it’s basically LinkedIn’s lofty goal to digitally map the global workforce. This includes creating profile for every member of the global workforce, a profile for every company in the world, and a digital representation of every job and every skill set required to obtain those jobs.”

Hey, buddy, can you spare a tinfoil hat?

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On the subject of ‘LockedIn’ —
this topic might be tangential, but I guess it’s not really.

Here’s a reportedly relatively-safe way to find out if your LinkedIn account was part of the big breach (from 4 years prior) that they publicized a couple of weeks ago:

“Now you can see if your LinkedIn account was caught up in 2012 hack”
By Zack Whittaker
May 24, 2016
http://www.zdnet.com/article/now-you-can-see-if-your-linkedin-details-were-leaked-in-2012-hack/

Might be a good idea to change your password there anyway, if you have a LinkedIn account, and if you haven’t already done so in the last month.

And, as I said in an earlier post, be careful when you are logged into more than one Microsoft internet entity (they have so many now) on the same device, if you deliberately use different usernames and passwords at them and desire to keep them separate, because Microsoft unfurls its tentacles under the surface and might consolidate your accounts and data before you know it.

—–
The poem Ozymandias by Shelley occurs to me —

“I met a traveller from an antique land who said:
‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert.
Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
tell that its sculptor well those passions read
which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains.

Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’ “

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Ah! That says it all!!! Oh! that it hopefully comes to pass……. and we shall all nod our heads and say……… verily…. it was said that this would be!

I don’t have a Linkedin account (although I had many requests to join a few years ago) but as someone said its the idea of the monopoly thing that makes the mind boggle. I wonder if they are going to ‘catch it’ from the EU…… or regulators and will have to toe the line by selling off stuff to comply…… as companies do when they so called ‘merge’ Lets hope so.

You know re the Skype thing……. there are many alternatives around………. one DOESN’T need to use Skype. TeamViewer and Wickr come to mind. LT

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Oh good, so that’s one way to escape the clutches of LinkedIn.

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@Bob,
Although your comment is a reply to John in Mtl’s comment that was a reply to my post, I expect that you were just making a general comment on the entire subject of Woody’s blog post, and not specifically replying to what either John in Mtl or I wrote,
because neither of us said anything about LinkedIn access only being through Windows 10 in the future (I wouldn’t expect them to ever require that), or that the “game” was over, or that the “internet of things” is a good idea or necessary for life (I stay away from it as far as possible).

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This is directed at John in Mtl (I don’t think it’s going to appear directly below his post, but be floating a few posts down, so I hope he sees it).

@John in Mtl,
I agree.
I don’t think it’s that you (and I)are “getting old” and becoming some slow, inflexible fuddyduddy or something — it’s that things are fundamentally changing, the ground is shifting very fast, and there’s some awfully dodgy stuff that seems to be going on.
If one doesn’t feel vertigo and unease, then he/she probably isn’t paying attention to the whole picture, or doesn’t have the intuition/sense/wisdom to hear the figurative warning sirens going off.
Having a simpler life is healthy, it’s the aspiration of a lot of thoughtful people.
All the best with your retirement, yes it’s a fortunate as well as worked-hard-for position to be in, enjoy it and be well.

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I’m sure there will be many articles like this, but here’s one I just happened upon tonight:

“I don’t want to be LinkedIn with Microsoft”
opinion by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Computerworld, June 13, 2016
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3083424/social-media/i-don-t-want-to-be-linkedin-with-microsoft.html

“…I have no problem with Microsoft finding new ways to compete.

Ah, but I do have a problem with something else. I don’t trust Microsoft with my data.

This is not a knee-jerk reaction. I no longer think Microsoft is the “Evil Empire.” In fact, I think Microsoft is well on its way to becoming an open-source company.

Also, while I don’t like how Microsoft is shoving Windows 10 down people’s throats, I actually like the latest version of the operating system.

What’s more, I expect Microsoft to do a better job with security than LinkedIn did.

…That said, I don’t want Microsoft to have full access to my business networking data. Privacy may be an old-fashioned idea these days, but at least with LinkedIn, I was sharing my information with a company that only did social networking. Microsoft wants to be the be-all and end-all of technology.

I’m not cool with this, and I’m not the only one.

Many people in technology fields simply don’t trust Microsoft. That’s especially true of people in Linux and open source.

…What really bothers me the most… [is] the “know your entire professional network part.” I’d like to connect my own dots, thank you very much. Or, at least, use a system that’s dedicated to business networking rather than selling Microsoft services and products.

With a thousand-plus LinkedIn connections, I’m not eager to leave it — yet. But if LinkedIn becomes too enmeshed in Microsoft-specific services, I’ll start looking elsewhere. And I won’t be alone.”

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+1

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The announcement opened up as follows (p.3):

“This presentation contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to the proposed transaction and business combination between Microsoft and LinkedIn, including statements regarding the benefits of the transaction, the anticipated timing of the transaction and the products and markets of each company.”

In fact, the entire contents of p.3 was a bunch of gobledygook just like the above.

Then, on p.15 it sounds an awful lot like Big Brother: “A digital assistant that’s predictive.” — “Hi Jen, you are meeting with Sam next. You and Sam both went to the University of Washington and you both know Cindy Smith. Good news, the Huskies won last night’s game. Do you want to look at Sam’s profile? Do you want to see your meeting history with Cindy and Sam? Also, ok if I share the presentation for today with Sam?

No wonder they put all of the lawyer talk right up front.

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@Lizzytish,

Yes, I don’t use Skype at all (or any of the alternatives — my webcam is also firmly taped over, chuckle!)

I hadn’t even used Skype for a couple of years before I logged into it that one day when Microsoft grabbed the Hotmail credentials of the Hotmail account I happened to be logged into at the time and assumed they were a correct and better version of the details that Skype should have for me, then wouldn’t let me go back to the old division.

I only logged in to Skype then to update my password and any security questions there, which I was doing on many sites that day as general security housekeeping. (I do that every couple of years — which is not often enough, but there are hundreds of sites/companies where I have some kind of account, and it takes ages.)

Generally I try to be actively logged into only one internet site at a time. But that day, I had the email account open at the same time as the accounts where I was signing in and updating my passwords, because sometimes I needed to receive and respond to verification emails before the new details were finalized.

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Microsoft has suitcases full of cash for a social networking site, meanwhile laying off thousands of staff. A good deal of these ex-employees probably have their resumes on Linkedin. It would behoove the Linkedin employees to spruce up their CVs too and go for the interviews asap.

Now that is irony for you.

The integration of Linkedin with Windows 10 (and Edge and Office) will no doubt be accomplished by offshore development contractors. Drive-by coders who are oblivious to all the octopus like tentacles that exist in Windows operating systems. Patch. fix, patch, revise, patch and fix again.

So after all this happens, Linkedin subscribers will only be able to access their account if they use W10? I see it now: You have asked to use a service that is now only available on W10 – your upgrade to W10 will start now or you can upgrade tonight.

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@poohsticks – Thank you for your insights and best wishes.

You certainly are right about being / remaining aware of where all this technology may lead. Yes, there are obvious benefits for business use. But I now question all this need to be “more efficient” and “more productive”. More efficient and productive for whom, for what, and at what price?

Someone once remarked that we no longer live in market economy but in a “market society” where everything, even life, is a commodity and is marketable; and that “the market” is all that really matters in life. Hum… not my idea of a good and satisfying life!

There was a time, in my 20’s & 30’s that I would dream of having a “Star Trek” kind of house, you know, touch panels everywhere, saying “Computer!” and the thing would respond with a bleep. Then I would retrieve my answering machine messages, fiddle with the temperature (HVAC), put on music, set the lights, start the coffee pot, etc. I thought it would all be so neat.

In the 70’s I implemented some of the very first AI & remote control systems in my home – the “X10” variety and the technology is still available today & has evolved (Insteon, Zwave, Zigbee, etc). But at some point, although it was nice to have a timed and prepared “get up & go to work” routine, it eventually felt too artificial and mechanical in nature; sort of the machines becoming my master instead of me having them at my beck and call.

So today, although I would find it entertaining to live in a StarTrek kind of environment, I really don’t see it as a necessity to augment my quality of life.

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I think all this “targeted advertising” model is so much BS, and I’ve always thought of it that way. It sure doesn’t work on me – I do all I can to cut out adverts on the net, put a bluescreen & mute the sound on the TV whenever adverts play, and put on my iPod when I’m alone in a place where the radio is on. I don’t notice billboards, and its easy to skip adverts in printed media like a newspaper. I’m SICK of being sollicited all the time, it is an unhealthy environment. WE live in an unhealthy environment now, due to beleiving too much in the goddess and myth of sacrosaint “progress”.

We already live in a world where we are constantly sollicited with irrelevant messages, mostly directed toward making you think and feel like you’re missing something, or you’re a nobody if you don’t have this or that, think this way or that way, like this or that trend, etc.

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Oh, and I should add: My Millenial colleagues and friends? They don’t have a clue. For them this is all “normal”, having known nothing else.

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