By now you may have heard the rumor that Microsoft is looking to buy Yammer for a billion dollars.
It’s a pretty shocking thought, but while anything can happen, I’m reserving my real shock until and unless something actually goes down. Right now, this is just another rumor, nothing more, and a surprising one at that. I spent the last two years in the Microsoft field, and do you know who worked hard to sell against us in the social space? Yep… Yammer. In my neck of the woods, they weren’t very successful at it, though– just persistent. As far as competitors went, I was always more impressed with Jive’s approach and toolset.
As far as Yammer itself, perhaps it plugs a hole or two in Microsoft’s current offering. A friend and colleague of mine here at Perficient pointed out that Yammer could fit really nicely into SharePoint Online and Office 365 today. Strategically, though, it’s still a bit of a head-scratcher given everything we’ve heard about Microsoft’s own future direction for social tools behind the firewall.
There’s also the question of the price. I can’t help but find the supposed price ($1 billion) a bit steep for what Yammer offers. In comparison, Microsoft “only” paid $8.5 billion for Skype, which had millions of users, an established reputation, and more marketable tech that did not overlay what MSFT already had in development. Was a company as well-known and valuable as Skype really only worth no more than eight little Yammers?
It’s never easy to tell what’s next up Redmond’s sleeve. This could happen, sure. Better-connected people than I am will have opinions, and I’m curious to see what they say… but from where I sit here as a mere participant in the industry– and unless we hear something more substantial– this smells more and more like a red herring to me.
