Hmm... 1) Skype was purchased by Ballmer. 2) Most of the ad tech companies were also purchased by Ballmer. 3) Minecraft and Skype are not Bay Area companies

Hmm... 1) Skype was purchased by Ballmer. 2) Most of the ad tech companies were also purchased by Ballmer. 3) Minecraft and Skype are not Bay Area companies 4) LinkedIn was a public company when Microsoft acquired them. So it seems like a stretch to call them a startup. 5) And finally it looks like Microsoft has done acquisitions throughout their existence. In fact, they acquired as many companies in 2007 as they did in 2018 and more in 2007 than 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... It doesn't seem like "buy lots of Bay Area Web 2.0 companies to infuse new talent" is the secret ingredient. Yahoo was the company that probably closest executed the strategy. That didn't go well as we all know.