Steve Ballmer proposed $15bn Facebook acquisition Microsoft's reported to have conceded it once tried to buy Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook for $15bn. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, made two trips to meet Zuckerberg at the company's HQ in Palo Alto, California, where he popped the proposal during a long walk. The tease Zuckerberg rebuffed Ballmer, as he wanted to …
Although this story seems to be three years old, it looks like the kind of stupid thing Ballmer might think off. Just when he should have been going hell-for-leather to decontaminate the brand, he’s looking to team up with another monopolist.
Zuckerberg was right not to take the offer, Facebook has one big chance to make money out of the personal information people have given him.. joining up with Microsoft would give the game away early.
Another misguided attempt by Microsoft to become popular and mainstream.
I can just see it now, integrate it into XBOX live and make it so that you can only access it with a subscription to Microsoft for which you will be charged of course presumably to provide a better user experience and keep it secure.
Because if they don't make it subscription based the entire Microsoft hating world will descend upon it and there will be hacking and flames and cursing and trolling and lots of anti-Microsoft stuff going on.
After they get that under control then maybe they can integrate those ridiculous looking big headed Microsoft characters into it and make it Kinect ready.
Yes, Kinect, because they are heavily promoting that thing which is something else that Microsoft didn't create, they simply bought it.
I don't think people realize what that thing actually does but that is another subject for another time.
Do some research on it.
Of course then the current population of Facebook will simply have to move someplace else and it will wither and die.
That is pretty much what Microsoft does to everything they get involved in.
They think that they can just buy popularity instead of being innovative and creative and actually producing something that people want without it having to be tied to Microsoft or having a fee attached to it.
As long as the robber-barons Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are there running the place it's going to continue to be like that.
So, if MS bought Facebook, and due to the simple fact that it's now owned by Microsoft, the site will wither and die....but yet, you suggest that if the provide something truly innovative that it stands a better chance of surviving as a popular [platform/whatever] than an already established site with a dedicated userbase? Hrm.
MS has been [sometimes] unfairly bashed, but when you're dealing with a monolithic OS that has a reputation of running on "anything," the unwieldly parts start to fall off. Linux is doing well enough and runs great on anything >1yr old, and sometimes just fine on the new stuff, but isn't quite there yet if you have to research if your new laptop will support [fav distro]. As massive as Win7 is, it's loads better than Vista, and has some great features over the aging WinXP, so at least MS is moving in a positive direction. If they keep it up, Win8 might actually be (dare I say it?) enjoyable to use.
/AC for the sickening semi-pro-MS stance.
Seriously, 15 billion? Has Ballmer gone completely off the rails? If they'd invested that much cash in sorting out, say, their mobile operating system, they'd be in a vastly better situation than if they'd hung an enormous web 2.0 albatross around their neck.
Of all the possible things to do with 15 billion, this has to rank right up there with the worst. Why is he still at the helm?
...no one else wants to poke the dead horse with sticks.
Even with a $15bn investment into a phoneOS isn't guaranteed to fix it. It takes creative thinking (hey, actually higher some high-school students to do some concept drawings), rather than depending upon die-hard MS users (developers/concept artists) to get a fresh perspective. I would have told them flat out their main screen blows chunks, esp with the idiot move of not allowing other "apps" to update their icon, not to mention some MS ones that are static too... The actual "app" screens, those aren't too bad.
Steve Ballmer? I really have no idea why he simple does NOT realize that he's a complete JOKE to everyone in the technology world.
He thinks he can buy popularity. I can see why he would think he can because he has every drooling technology and money hungry over-paid idiot working for him who are afraid of him and telling him things that he likes to hear. If you worked for him you'd have no choice but to agree with every one of his stupid ideas (take the Bing promo ad for example).
Steve needs a serious PR makeover. Let's face it, he's a seriously ugly and fat neanderthal. He's fat and sweaty, he has no sense of public social manners and he's fat, sweaty and ugly. Did I mention that he's fat, sweaty and ugly? What was going through his mind when he was jumping up and down, running all over the place and sweating through his clothes on stage?
I don't know him and I've never heard anyone complaining about it, but I would suspect he's a bully that thinks he can do what he wants because of his money. He needs to get himself the best dietitian, fitness trainer, fashion consultant, hair dresser, image consultant and manners adviser that money can buy--preferably all gay men with take-no-prisoners bitchy attitudes to set him "straight".
The man's a walking heart attack and very huge PR disaster for Microsoft. He has bad ideas and his image are extremely detrimental to one of the most influential corporations in the world. If he slimmed down, groomed properly, dressed more casually, softened his tone and demeanor and acted less like a neanderthal--he could really do better.
I'm not an Apple fan, but he can learn a lot from Steve Jobs. No, Ballmer doesn't have to be exactly like jobs. A good image and manners coach can give him a unique public persona that goes along with his natural abilities.
None of this will happen though--we are talking about fat, ugly and sweaty monkey-man neanderthal Steve Ballmer after-all.
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