8 ms·

That letter Slack wrote to Microsoft after they rejected a $$$ takeover a few years ago has not aged that well. https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/blog/news/dear-mic

by adwww 6y ago

That letter Slack wrote to Microsoft after they rejected a $$$ takeover a few years ago has not aged that well. https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/blog/news/dear-microsoft https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/blog/news/dear-microsoft

elevenoh 6y ago
What'd you say aged least well about this?
- adwww 6y ago
  Mostly the arrogance that went into writing it..!
- bdefore 6y ago
  The bit about love and 'open platform is essential' reads pretty rich when they removed token support, killing off slack-keep-presence (https://github.com/eskerda/slack-keep-presence https://github.com/eskerda/slack-keep-presence) so that you can be more thoroughly surveilled. Do they give admins productivity scores of all employees yet?
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Or when they removed the IRC and XMPP bridges?
seibelj 6y ago
> Third, you’ve got to do this with love. You’ll need to take a radically different approach to supporting and partnering with customers to help them adjust to new and better ways of working. This is so cringe-inducing, I can't believe they paid to have this in the NYT. Microsoft stock up to all-time highs as Teams eats Slack's lunch (for better or worse), while Slack bought for scrap by a company way worse than MSFT. Maybe don't publicly shame potential acquirers in passive-aggressive paid advertisements?
- KingMachiavelli 6y ago
  Agreed. I think in 2016 Slack just got absorbed in their own thing. Slack is pretty good and has some nice features but not really anything a big Acme corp can't copy. And I'd expect Slack to be another case where 90% of people just use direct & channel messaging, no or few apps, etc. which means the switching costs are very low. Although on another side, MS Teams is still miles behind Slack. While you can be signed into multiple orgs in Teams, switching orgs literally restarts the program which means that switching from your org to a client's org is super disruptive. If you are in a video call your only option is to open teams in the browser to view another organization.
  - mgkimsal 6y ago
    Yet the mobile app version seems to allow team switching pretty easily. So disappointing, as I've had multiple clients switch to teams over the last year. It was easier to keep multiple slack channels open and jump between as needed to keep an eye on things. Teams is really only focused on 'internal teams at one company' - users external to a company are, at best, an afterthought.
  - adwww 6y ago
    Slack is still just about a better standalone product, but the Teams integration (and bundling) with 365 makes it a very strong product overall.
    - MangoCoffee 6y ago
      its free with 365 subscription. our VP of IT love it. its good enough why pay for another similar product (Slack)
      - arkitaip 6y ago
        A 365 sub probably is the single most useful and valuable service most companies can get. I mean, just look at what you get for $15 per user [0]. [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compa...
omh 6y ago
I agree that there's a lot in that letter that hasn't aged well. But it looks like Microsoft considered paying about $8 billion back in 2016[1]. Slack held out, Microsoft built their competitor and Slack are still around. And now Slack are going to sell for $24 billion or more. I'm not sure that puts Slack in too bad a light. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/04/source-microsoft-mulled-an-8-billion-bid-for-slack-will-focus-on-skype-instead/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/04/source-microsoft-mulled-an...
- bogomipz 6y ago
  >"I'm not sure that puts Slack in too bad a light." For another perspective, from a WSJ article on Friday: >"Zoom has grown to more than 300 million daily active participants—a broader measure than daily active users—from around 10 million before the pandemic. Microsoft’s Teams, which offers Zoom and Slack-like features and comes at no extra cost for users of its Office 365 suite, grew from 32 million daily active users at the beginning of the pandemic in March to more than 115 million last month. Slack stopped updating its daily active user number late last year when it reached 12 million." [1] [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/slack-missed-out-on-the-pandemics-zoom-boom-leaving-it-vulnerable-11606478401 https://www.wsj.com/articles/slack-missed-out-on-the-pandemi...
  - russell_h 6y ago
    I wouldn’t trust any of those numbers. The Zoom metric is totally incomparable (they’re definitely killing it, but that metric counts each user many times over), and Teams is included for free with O365 and the product boundaries are getting blurry - so who knows how much how much actual engagement those users have with the chat or video features.
    - fgonzag 6y ago
      300 million for zoom is actually kind of believable. Here in Mexico private schools were using Zoom for virtual classes. I know of many other countries who took the same route. Obviously public education couldn't use it because of a lack of hardware or internet connection on both sides so it was broadcast over TV.
tims33 6y ago
What is the evidence that Slack rejected an acquisition offer from MSFT?
- pianoben 6y ago
  I'm a former MSFT employee with direct knowledge of the situation. There was an offer (not saying the amount), and Slack countered with a price that we deemed far too high. Personally I thought we should have moved forward, but it wasn't anything I had a say in. No proof, you'll just have to take my word for it.
  - milkytron 6y ago
    Well that's a shame. Now I'm stuck with Teams.
    - pianoben 6y ago
      Lol, how do you think _we_ felt about it? It was a sad, sad day when our CVP forced our org to cancel our Slack plan and move to Teams. What a garbage piece of software it was back then. Probably still is, but it's been years since I was last subjected to it.
      - cutenewt 6y ago
        In hindsight, I think MS dodged a bullet. Buying Slack would have been another Skype-like failed acquisition. Teams is a solid piece of software, and Microsoft has done a good job making it unique in a crowded marketplace.
- paxys 6y ago
  What official evidence can there be of a failed acquisition? News agencies with a good reputation and track record reporting on insider sources is as close as you are going to get.
  - tims33 6y ago
paxys 6y ago
Growing your acquisition value from $8B to ~$25B+ in that period would count as a win in my book.
graeme 6y ago
I’m surprised they so clearly copied Apple’s letter to IBM, which turned out to be a letter to Microsoft. We know how that turned out in the 80s and 90s. https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/jobs-apple-welcome-ibm-seriously-ad.php https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/jobs-apple-welc...
ciarannolan 6y ago
> So welcome, Microsoft, to the revolution. We’re glad you’re going to be helping us define this new product category. We admire many of your achievements and know you’ll be a worthy competitor. We’re sure you’re going to come up with a couple of new ideas on your own too. And we’ll be right there, ready. This whole thing is dripping with condescension and ego. It reads like a nasty letter written to an ex-girlfriend about how you're super successful now and gee I'm glad you're doing well too. Yuck.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ljm 6y ago
  I'm not a fan of Slack's writing style at all. They just sound like assholes. This is my favourite post demonstrating just how awful their 'voice' is: https://api.slack.com/changelog/2017-09-the-one-about-usernames https://api.slack.com/changelog/2017-09-the-one-about-userna... They come across as egregiously sardonic. I feel that same voice was evident with the whole fuss around their shitty WYSIWYG addition before they gave in and allowed you to turn it off.
antbrain 6y ago
Now imagine how fucked up Slack would be and look on their faces if Microsoft buys Salesforce now? I can't stop laughing imagining this! Seriously.
jbjbjbjb 6y ago
We tried Slack in the early days. No way we could run that across the entire business. It was clear back with Slack being then a cloud based, Electron based, lacking of MS Office integration, lacking Active directory integration a Microsoft me too offering would take all the market share. I’m surprised they didn’t do more to address this. Obviously Covid has massively accelerated Teams adoption too but it was a no brainer for businesses running Office 365.

by adwww 6y ago

elevenoh 6y ago

What'd you say aged least well about this?

adwww 6y ago
Mostly the arrogance that went into writing it..!
bdefore 6y ago
The bit about love and 'open platform is essential' reads pretty rich when they removed token support, killing off slack-keep-presence (https://github.com/eskerda/slack-keep-presence https://github.com/eskerda/slack-keep-presence) so that you can be more thoroughly surveilled. Do they give admins productivity scores of all employees yet?
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Or when they removed the IRC and XMPP bridges?

seibelj 6y ago

> Third, you’ve got to do this with love. You’ll need to take a radically different approach to supporting and partnering with customers to help them adjust to new and better ways of working. This is so cringe-inducing, I can't believe they paid to have this in the NYT. Microsoft stock up to all-time highs as Teams eats Slack's lunch (for better or worse), while Slack bought for scrap by a company way worse than MSFT. Maybe don't publicly shame potential acquirers in passive-aggressive paid advertisements?

KingMachiavelli 6y ago
Agreed. I think in 2016 Slack just got absorbed in their own thing. Slack is pretty good and has some nice features but not really anything a big Acme corp can't copy. And I'd expect Slack to be another case where 90% of people just use direct & channel messaging, no or few apps, etc. which means the switching costs are very low. Although on another side, MS Teams is still miles behind Slack. While you can be signed into multiple orgs in Teams, switching orgs literally restarts the program which means that switching from your org to a client's org is super disruptive. If you are in a video call your only option is to open teams in the browser to view another organization.
- mgkimsal 6y ago
  Yet the mobile app version seems to allow team switching pretty easily. So disappointing, as I've had multiple clients switch to teams over the last year. It was easier to keep multiple slack channels open and jump between as needed to keep an eye on things. Teams is really only focused on 'internal teams at one company' - users external to a company are, at best, an afterthought.
- adwww 6y ago
  Slack is still just about a better standalone product, but the Teams integration (and bundling) with 365 makes it a very strong product overall.
  - MangoCoffee 6y ago
    its free with 365 subscription. our VP of IT love it. its good enough why pay for another similar product (Slack)
    - arkitaip 6y ago
      A 365 sub probably is the single most useful and valuable service most companies can get. I mean, just look at what you get for $15 per user [0]. [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compa...

omh 6y ago

I agree that there's a lot in that letter that hasn't aged well. But it looks like Microsoft considered paying about $8 billion back in 2016[1]. Slack held out, Microsoft built their competitor and Slack are still around. And now Slack are going to sell for $24 billion or more. I'm not sure that puts Slack in too bad a light. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/04/source-microsoft-mulled-an-8-billion-bid-for-slack-will-focus-on-skype-instead/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/04/source-microsoft-mulled-an...

bogomipz 6y ago
>"I'm not sure that puts Slack in too bad a light." For another perspective, from a WSJ article on Friday: >"Zoom has grown to more than 300 million daily active participants—a broader measure than daily active users—from around 10 million before the pandemic. Microsoft’s Teams, which offers Zoom and Slack-like features and comes at no extra cost for users of its Office 365 suite, grew from 32 million daily active users at the beginning of the pandemic in March to more than 115 million last month. Slack stopped updating its daily active user number late last year when it reached 12 million." [1] [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/slack-missed-out-on-the-pandemics-zoom-boom-leaving-it-vulnerable-11606478401 https://www.wsj.com/articles/slack-missed-out-on-the-pandemi...
- russell_h 6y ago
  I wouldn’t trust any of those numbers. The Zoom metric is totally incomparable (they’re definitely killing it, but that metric counts each user many times over), and Teams is included for free with O365 and the product boundaries are getting blurry - so who knows how much how much actual engagement those users have with the chat or video features.
  - fgonzag 6y ago
    300 million for zoom is actually kind of believable. Here in Mexico private schools were using Zoom for virtual classes. I know of many other countries who took the same route. Obviously public education couldn't use it because of a lack of hardware or internet connection on both sides so it was broadcast over TV.

tims33 6y ago

What is the evidence that Slack rejected an acquisition offer from MSFT?

pianoben 6y ago
I'm a former MSFT employee with direct knowledge of the situation. There was an offer (not saying the amount), and Slack countered with a price that we deemed far too high. Personally I thought we should have moved forward, but it wasn't anything I had a say in. No proof, you'll just have to take my word for it.
- milkytron 6y ago
  Well that's a shame. Now I'm stuck with Teams.
  - pianoben 6y ago
    Lol, how do you think _we_ felt about it? It was a sad, sad day when our CVP forced our org to cancel our Slack plan and move to Teams. What a garbage piece of software it was back then. Probably still is, but it's been years since I was last subjected to it.
    - cutenewt 6y ago
      In hindsight, I think MS dodged a bullet. Buying Slack would have been another Skype-like failed acquisition. Teams is a solid piece of software, and Microsoft has done a good job making it unique in a crowded marketplace.
paxys 6y ago
What official evidence can there be of a failed acquisition? News agencies with a good reputation and track record reporting on insider sources is as close as you are going to get.
- tims33 6y ago

paxys 6y ago

Growing your acquisition value from $8B to ~$25B+ in that period would count as a win in my book.

graeme 6y ago

I’m surprised they so clearly copied Apple’s letter to IBM, which turned out to be a letter to Microsoft. We know how that turned out in the 80s and 90s. https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/jobs-apple-welcome-ibm-seriously-ad.php https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/jobs-apple-welc...

ciarannolan 6y ago

> So welcome, Microsoft, to the revolution. We’re glad you’re going to be helping us define this new product category. We admire many of your achievements and know you’ll be a worthy competitor. We’re sure you’re going to come up with a couple of new ideas on your own too. And we’ll be right there, ready. This whole thing is dripping with condescension and ego. It reads like a nasty letter written to an ex-girlfriend about how you're super successful now and gee I'm glad you're doing well too. Yuck.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ljm 6y ago
I'm not a fan of Slack's writing style at all. They just sound like assholes. This is my favourite post demonstrating just how awful their 'voice' is: https://api.slack.com/changelog/2017-09-the-one-about-usernames https://api.slack.com/changelog/2017-09-the-one-about-userna... They come across as egregiously sardonic. I feel that same voice was evident with the whole fuss around their shitty WYSIWYG addition before they gave in and allowed you to turn it off.

antbrain 6y ago

Now imagine how fucked up Slack would be and look on their faces if Microsoft buys Salesforce now? I can't stop laughing imagining this! Seriously.

jbjbjbjb 6y ago

We tried Slack in the early days. No way we could run that across the entire business. It was clear back with Slack being then a cloud based, Electron based, lacking of MS Office integration, lacking Active directory integration a Microsoft me too offering would take all the market share. I’m surprised they didn’t do more to address this. Obviously Covid has massively accelerated Teams adoption too but it was a no brainer for businesses running Office 365.