Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cloud
    • IT Management

    Microsoft’s Reported Yammer Deal Blasted by Analysts

    By
    Todd R. Weiss
    -
    June 14, 2012
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Microsoft is apparently making efforts to acquire enterprise social networking vendor Yammer, according to a report by Bloomberg.com, but several industry analysts say the potential move won’t do anything to help give Microsoft new opportunities for vibrant market growth.

      Microsoft may pay more than $1 billion, and a deal may be reached as soon as tomorrow, said one person, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private,” Bloomberg reported.

      If the deal goes through, it would be pointless, said financial analyst Trip Chowdhry of San Francisco-based Global Equities Research. “If they acquire Yammer, it wouldn’t really do anything for Microsoft,” he said. “It’s just like their lack of a mobile strategy. The market has already been taken.”

      Part of the problem, Chowdhry said, is that Microsoft is trying to bolster its offerings in the enterprise social networking market too late against innovative competitors such as Salesforce.com and Oracle Corp., which offer well-developed products that have good adoption rates among business users.

      “They’re late to the party,” he said of Microsoft. “They should be doing things that no one else has been doing before. I don€™t think it makes sense.”

      Jonathan Yarmis, principal analyst with The Yarmis Group, agrees. “In some ways, it’s about€¦time that Microsoft did this,” he said. “The fact that they€™ve got to spend $1 billion [to add these capabilities] is in some ways an acknowledgement of a massive fail.”

      The potential deal would clearly highlight the disappointing adoption of Microsoft’s SharePoint application, which has been touted by the company as a tool for enterprise collaboration, Yarmis said. “SharePoint is a rudimentary file-sharing application, and I don€™t care about what they say everybody is doing with it. At the end of the day, it is a file-sharing application and not an enterprise social network. That€™s why they are looking to buy Yammer. They had to go out and buy one because they didn€™t build one for themselves.”

      What the possible move does show, he said, is that Microsoft has “made an admission of failure and that they’re actually going to buy something to fill this hole. They could have been building this all along.€

      Yet even if the deal goes through, Yarmis said, it still won’t position Microsoft as the No. 1 player in the enterprise social networking market.

      “There is no category brilliance here,” he says of Yammer’s products. Yammer includes all the tools that competitors include, from micro-blogging capabilities to group functions to wikis and more, he said. “Yammer doesn’t have superior features or anything over their competition, but Microsoft certainly gives them a distribution reach” if the deal is finalized. “For competitors like Jive, I can’t imagine that this is a good day for them.”

      Another analyst, Rob Enderle, principal analyst of The Enderle Group, said Microsoft has typically had a rough time with these kinds of acquisitions in the past because the innovative developers who created the acquired products usually don’t stick around.

      “You acquire a firm that does what you want to do,” Enderle said. “The key is retaining the people from that company. That€™s often been a problem for Microsoft. It€™s the people who have the skill sets for Yammer’s products so they’re going to have to figure a way to retain these people better.”

      Enterprise social networking applications have been adding several key features for businesses in the enterprise marketplace as of late, including giving employees the ability to collaborate without emails and meetings as well as the capability to share ideas in real time anywhere in the world. Yammer lets companies create secure, private social networks for their employees, bringing together features and user interfaces that are similar to Facebook and Twitter.

      Yammer is used by more than 200,000 companies around the world, according to the company’s Website, including DHL, LG, Nationwide Insurance, Ford Motor Co., Shell, Capgemini and Razorfish.

      In April, Yammer announced that was adding new Yammer integration features with Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM application.

      Todd R. Weiss
      As a technology journalist covering enterprise IT for more than 15 years, I joined eWEEK.com in September 2014 as the site's senior writer covering all things mobile. I write about smartphones, tablets, laptops, assorted mobile gadgets and services,mobile carriers and much more. I formerly was a staff writer for Computerworld.com from 2000 to 2008 and previously wrote for daily newspapers in eastern Pennsylvania. I'm an avid traveler, motorcyclist, technology lover, cook, reader, tinkerer and mechanic. I drove a yellow taxicab in college and collect toy taxis and taxi business cards from around the world.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×