3 ms·

Just because Microsoft has a lot of money doesn't mean they can just throw it around. That's not how the world works...

yawaramin 7y ago
They're literally throwing around money creating new coding tools, languages, buying GitHub, LinkedIn, ... if we were to debate the effectiveness of its spending, there would be a lot to talk about.
- ecocentrik 7y ago
  I hope you're not serious. Very few companies do anything just for goodwill.
- johannes1234321 7y ago
  That has long term effects of tying developers to the brand. Giving money to sonatype or somebody like that will be forgotten in a week by outsiders.
  - yawaramin 7y ago
    > That has long term effects of tying developers to the brand. So does GitHub's package registry. In terms of ROI for dollars spent, that seems pretty good.
- paulddraper 7y ago
  For an ROI. while True: print 'Developers' If you can convince them that throwing a few bucks towards something adds to the ROI, then sure.
srgpqt 7y ago
They bought Minecraft for 4 billion.
- lostmsu 7y ago
  AFAIR it was 2, but still impressive.
- PeterStuer 7y ago
  2,5 Billion, with money from oversees on which they otherwise would be heavily taxed. They bought a game studio with significant growth potential at 20x its annual profits, but maybe even more important, they bought 54 Million and growing user accounts on a diversity of platforms, of often very young captive users, easily convertible into Microsoft accounts, a number which was poised to expand rapidly. Indeed, Microsoft has sold and added 100M more Micecraft licenses and accounts since. From an account acquisition point of view alone, which fairly often is the main driver of these transactions, the deal was a steal. I'd estimate the value of a fresh user account in a desirable demographic to be around $250 for Microsoft. Even the short term projected revenue would be close to $10. Microsoft projected the deal to pay for itself in 1 year, and while not having followed the case up close, chances are it did.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

They're literally throwing around money creating new coding tools, languages, buying GitHub, LinkedIn, ... if we were to debate the effectiveness of its spending, there would be a lot to talk about.

ecocentrik 7y ago
I hope you're not serious. Very few companies do anything just for goodwill.
johannes1234321 7y ago
That has long term effects of tying developers to the brand. Giving money to sonatype or somebody like that will be forgotten in a week by outsiders.
- yawaramin 7y ago
  > That has long term effects of tying developers to the brand. So does GitHub's package registry. In terms of ROI for dollars spent, that seems pretty good.
paulddraper 7y ago
For an ROI. while True: print 'Developers' If you can convince them that throwing a few bucks towards something adds to the ROI, then sure.

srgpqt 7y ago

They bought Minecraft for 4 billion.

lostmsu 7y ago
AFAIR it was 2, but still impressive.
PeterStuer 7y ago
2,5 Billion, with money from oversees on which they otherwise would be heavily taxed. They bought a game studio with significant growth potential at 20x its annual profits, but maybe even more important, they bought 54 Million and growing user accounts on a diversity of platforms, of often very young captive users, easily convertible into Microsoft accounts, a number which was poised to expand rapidly. Indeed, Microsoft has sold and added 100M more Micecraft licenses and accounts since. From an account acquisition point of view alone, which fairly often is the main driver of these transactions, the deal was a steal. I'd estimate the value of a fresh user account in a desirable demographic to be around $250 for Microsoft. Even the short term projected revenue would be close to $10. Microsoft projected the deal to pay for itself in 1 year, and while not having followed the case up close, chances are it did.

deleted 7y ago

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