11 ms·

Never heard of Yammer until now. The buying price is a lot; I remember the days when millions were only used (born in the sixties). Anyway, yet another company

Never heard of Yammer until now. The buying price is a lot; I remember the days when millions were only used (born in the sixties). Anyway, yet another company swallowed by Microsoft. Whether it will "live" or "die", it is too early to tell.

bad_user 14y ago
We've used Yammer inside our small company, but quickly gave up on it because we are few and I think Yammer is a lot more useful in big companies were you should keep up to date on what the other groups around you are doing. The implementation is pretty solid though and I liked the features provided. It really is Twitter for the Enterprise, so this acquisition makes sense for Microsoft. Some smart people like Coda Hale also work there. I wonder if they'll leave or not.
- mindcrime 14y ago
  We've used Yammer inside our small company, but quickly gave up on it because we are few and I think Yammer is a lot more useful in big companies were you should keep up to date on what the other groups around you are doing. Just out of curiosity, are you willing to say how big (employee count, maybe) your company is?
  - bad_user 14y ago
    Oscillating between 5 and 10 people.
    - mindcrime 14y ago
      Gotcha. The research I've done so far leads me to believe that the real value in this kind of tech doesn't start to kick in until you get up into the hundreds of employees. Right now we're operating on the belief that companies that are a target for our product begin with the ones of about 500 employees (allowing for a few simplifying assumptions).
- mahyarm 14y ago
  Yeah, something like yammer would probably be useful to companies that have crossed the two major office building barrier or similar.
- daliusd 14y ago
  I'm working in big company. Our company was experimenting with it as well but it was too much and later company dropped this experiment. Everyone was using it as corporate facebook and dropped back and forth various links about technology news and etc. Knowing that colleagues I barely know from foreign countries join yammer was not of much of value either (unless your are creepy type looking at nice girls/boys in your company). I have run from it as fast as I can. From other side I don't have Facebook account either so maybe that just not for me. I am glad that our company decided not to invest into Yammer (I think corporate accounts have free quota).
- codahale 14y ago
  Some smart people like Coda Hale also work there. I wonder if they'll leave or not. Oh heeeeell no.
  - harshaw 14y ago
    well at least we know that someone is incentivized :) congrats
- dugmartin 14y ago
  If you haven't already you might want to try out P2 from Automattic (http://p2theme.com/ http://p2theme.com/) - it is much lighter weight.
  - cpr 14y ago
    A year or two back P2 was so flakey in so many ways, it was impossible to use. Has it gotten any better?
zainny 14y ago
Tell me about it. All these valuations and buyouts starting with a $"B" make me a bit nervous (and truthfully, envious as well). I don't understand how a market of rational actors can support these kind of numbers. There is just this complete disconnect in my mind with the value these companies provide (people, assets, IP, networking, users, etc.) and the sort of figures getting tossed around.
- bad_user 14y ago
  The Yammer acquisition is consistent with one of Microsoft's core strengths (productivity and collaboration tools for the enterprise). Yammer is also a profitable business that's already really popular in Fortune 500 companies (by their own claims 85% of those companies, out of 200,000 total, which is pretty impressive).
  - zainny 14y ago
    The reason I still have trouble understanding a $B acquisition even in spite of these numbers, is that the tech market is so slippery and fast moving. It is a hotbed of continual disruption and I don't see that stopping any time soon. An investment of > $1B is not paid off overnight, but rather takes a great many many years. Will Yammer still be relevant and providing a competitive advantage for Microsoft ten years from now? Will Microsoft in ten years from now even look anything like the Microsoft we know today? For example, one world I'm somewhat familiar with is financial planning businesses. In selling a financial planning business, you'll give it a back of the envelope pricing of several multiples (say 2x - 5x) of the amount of revenue the business is generating/expected to generate annually. That way, the buyer says to himself "Well, I make the big investment now and then I reach breaking-even point 3 years down the road" and from there it's all profit. 2x - 5x is a reasonable valuation, because both the buyer/seller can reasonably expect the business fundamentals to remain solid for that period of time. If the seller feels the business may be solid for longer, then he may push for a higher multiple. Conversely, a lower multiple may be justified in the opposite situation. Back to fundamentals, dollars to donuts, a valuation north of $1B for a company earning a fraction of that in revenue is to me making the statement "We expect the fundamentals of this business to remain solid practically forever" or "We expect this company to accelerate from zero to infinity" - because you would literally need it to in order to recoup your out of pocket * In the tech industry, that just seems a laughable proposition. * Of course, there are many other considerations (people value, etc.) but at its core the dollars have to add up or you're just upping the ante on the bubble.
mehrshad 14y ago
IMHO, MSFT's made somewhat strong progress on its integration of Skype (so far), promoting it as a strong value-add for the forthcoming XBox Live and WP8. Yammer's a much-needed HR/quick collab tool for MSFT's appeal to CIOs, and I'm guessing it'll likely come to fruition as an integrated feature in Office 2018, and a beta feature in Office Live sooner than that. It's a good fit - much better than Salesforce buying them out to stifle MSFT/GOOG.

bad_user 14y ago

We've used Yammer inside our small company, but quickly gave up on it because we are few and I think Yammer is a lot more useful in big companies were you should keep up to date on what the other groups around you are doing. The implementation is pretty solid though and I liked the features provided. It really is Twitter for the Enterprise, so this acquisition makes sense for Microsoft. Some smart people like Coda Hale also work there. I wonder if they'll leave or not.

mindcrime 14y ago
We've used Yammer inside our small company, but quickly gave up on it because we are few and I think Yammer is a lot more useful in big companies were you should keep up to date on what the other groups around you are doing. Just out of curiosity, are you willing to say how big (employee count, maybe) your company is?
- bad_user 14y ago
  Oscillating between 5 and 10 people.
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Gotcha. The research I've done so far leads me to believe that the real value in this kind of tech doesn't start to kick in until you get up into the hundreds of employees. Right now we're operating on the belief that companies that are a target for our product begin with the ones of about 500 employees (allowing for a few simplifying assumptions).
mahyarm 14y ago
Yeah, something like yammer would probably be useful to companies that have crossed the two major office building barrier or similar.
daliusd 14y ago
I'm working in big company. Our company was experimenting with it as well but it was too much and later company dropped this experiment. Everyone was using it as corporate facebook and dropped back and forth various links about technology news and etc. Knowing that colleagues I barely know from foreign countries join yammer was not of much of value either (unless your are creepy type looking at nice girls/boys in your company). I have run from it as fast as I can. From other side I don't have Facebook account either so maybe that just not for me. I am glad that our company decided not to invest into Yammer (I think corporate accounts have free quota).
codahale 14y ago
Some smart people like Coda Hale also work there. I wonder if they'll leave or not. Oh heeeeell no.
- harshaw 14y ago
  well at least we know that someone is incentivized :) congrats
dugmartin 14y ago
If you haven't already you might want to try out P2 from Automattic (http://p2theme.com/ http://p2theme.com/) - it is much lighter weight.
- cpr 14y ago
  A year or two back P2 was so flakey in so many ways, it was impossible to use. Has it gotten any better?

zainny 14y ago

Tell me about it. All these valuations and buyouts starting with a $"B" make me a bit nervous (and truthfully, envious as well). I don't understand how a market of rational actors can support these kind of numbers. There is just this complete disconnect in my mind with the value these companies provide (people, assets, IP, networking, users, etc.) and the sort of figures getting tossed around.

bad_user 14y ago
The Yammer acquisition is consistent with one of Microsoft's core strengths (productivity and collaboration tools for the enterprise). Yammer is also a profitable business that's already really popular in Fortune 500 companies (by their own claims 85% of those companies, out of 200,000 total, which is pretty impressive).
- zainny 14y ago
  The reason I still have trouble understanding a $B acquisition even in spite of these numbers, is that the tech market is so slippery and fast moving. It is a hotbed of continual disruption and I don't see that stopping any time soon. An investment of > $1B is not paid off overnight, but rather takes a great many many years. Will Yammer still be relevant and providing a competitive advantage for Microsoft ten years from now? Will Microsoft in ten years from now even look anything like the Microsoft we know today? For example, one world I'm somewhat familiar with is financial planning businesses. In selling a financial planning business, you'll give it a back of the envelope pricing of several multiples (say 2x - 5x) of the amount of revenue the business is generating/expected to generate annually. That way, the buyer says to himself "Well, I make the big investment now and then I reach breaking-even point 3 years down the road" and from there it's all profit. 2x - 5x is a reasonable valuation, because both the buyer/seller can reasonably expect the business fundamentals to remain solid for that period of time. If the seller feels the business may be solid for longer, then he may push for a higher multiple. Conversely, a lower multiple may be justified in the opposite situation. Back to fundamentals, dollars to donuts, a valuation north of $1B for a company earning a fraction of that in revenue is to me making the statement "We expect the fundamentals of this business to remain solid practically forever" or "We expect this company to accelerate from zero to infinity" - because you would literally need it to in order to recoup your out of pocket * In the tech industry, that just seems a laughable proposition. * Of course, there are many other considerations (people value, etc.) but at its core the dollars have to add up or you're just upping the ante on the bubble.

mehrshad 14y ago

IMHO, MSFT's made somewhat strong progress on its integration of Skype (so far), promoting it as a strong value-add for the forthcoming XBox Live and WP8. Yammer's a much-needed HR/quick collab tool for MSFT's appeal to CIOs, and I'm guessing it'll likely come to fruition as an integrated feature in Office 2018, and a beta feature in Office Live sooner than that. It's a good fit - much better than Salesforce buying them out to stifle MSFT/GOOG.