Companies "dead carpet" after the Microsoft

Not only Nokia phones, the list of companies that "dead carpet" after the Microsoft also Hotmail, WebTV, aQuantive ....

- Buy time: 1998

Microsoft bought its first web-based email provider, HoTMaiL, in 1998, at a rumor price of $ 400-500 million. Hotmail account is still used today, but Microsoft admitted it was a break-even business and was used to transfer traffic from strategic products like Bing or Office 365.

Navision

- Purchase price: $ 1.54 billion

- Buy time: July 11, 2002

After acquiring Great Plain Software, a value accounting application company in 2001, estimated at $ 1.1 billion, Microsoft took another step to consolidate its position in the enterprise management system by The acquisition of Navision, a Danish company, has also developed similar products but has a better place in the European market.

Both are pre-installed in Microsoft Dynamics, along with Navision and Great Plain, which are four powerful handsets in the field. Although Microsoft scored a series of services to meet the growing demand for the software market, Microsoft spent $ 3 billion to hijack leading rivals such as SAP, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Oracle. Last but not least, according to a 2009 report, the market share remained dominated by SAP, Oracle, and Sale Forces, with Microsoft occupying only a fourth position with 6.4% market share, far behind SAP's 22nd. , 5%.

Tellme Networks

- Purchase price: 800 million USD

- Buy time: March 14, 2007

Mike McCue's co-founder Tellme was bought for $ 800, after just two years, McCue used the money to create the Flipboard.

The 2007 deal was promised, and the company was able to offer a search service such as stock quotes, website weather, and auto-responders. Companies reduce the number of employees significantly.

Unfortunately, Microsoft bought it for approximately $ 800 million, but Tellme's operating model was not in line with the growing trend of the mobile web, and what Tellme did was just like an assistant. Virtual Siri or Google Now today

For co-founder Tellme, Mike McCue, this is a smart deal. Thanks to this money, he created a relationship with major investor Kleiner Perkins to create the Flipboard social magazine application that is still very popular today.

WebTV, one of the first Internet TV companies

- Purchase price: $ 425 million

- Buy time: 1997

As the internet became more popular, Microsoft, like other companies, said people would want to surf the Internet. To be one of the first to enter the market, Microsoft acquired WebTV for $ 435 million in cash and stock options. The number of products sold very little, though Microsoft later changed the product name to MSN TV, but it did not help. Finally after a few years, Microsoft stopped selling MSN TVs and focused on a more successful strategy: Xbox.

Danger, software and mobile services

- Purchase price: estimated $ 500 million

- Buy time: 2008

Microsoft bought Danger at a rumored price of $ 500 million at the beginning of 2008 to boost its mobile strategy. However, the acquisition was broken by internal fighting. Eventually Danger's group was forced to do unwanted work and the final product was the Kin phone, another group developed the Windows Phone 7 operating system. The Kin phone was born after some time with Less features than promised and canceled only two months later.

aQuantive, a software company and advertising services

- Purchase price: 6 billion USD

- Buy time: 2007

CEO aQuantitive

Microsoft bought aQuantive in 2007 to "lose" to Google when it bought DoubleClick and also to strip it of its rival Yahoo.

This Seattle-based company owns many advertising and publishing products. In addition, the company also owns a digital publishing house called Avenue A. But the integration of the two companies encountered many problems and eventually Microsoft has to re-adjust the advertising strategy. Most of the aQuantive executives who left the company and CEO Brian McAndrews also left aQuantive in late 2008. Microsoft has used aQuantive technology on its advertising platform, but most of these technologies was then removed.

Finally, Microsoft sold Avenua A for $ 530 million to WPP in 2009.

Microsoft also invested millions of dollars in the late 1999 and 2000

In addition to huge acquisitions, Microsoft has invested billions in other telecoms companies with AT & T ($ 5 billion), Comcast ($ 1 billion), Japan's Titus ($ 950 million), Korea Telecom $ 500 million). It is unclear how much Microsoft has made in these investments, but the plan to bring its software to digital receivers has never materialized and caused the company to suffer heavy losses. the 2000s.

Nokia's range of devices and services

- Purchase price: $ 7.2 billion

- Buy time: May 2014

In May 2014, Microft announced a $ 7.2 billion acquisition of equipment and services, of which Microsoft spent $ 5 billion for most of its mobile unit Nokia and other $ 2.2 billion to acquire the patents that Nokia holds. When the sale was successful, Microsoft CEO Joyce declared: "Microsoft today welcomed Nokia's equipment and services division to join our family. Mobility in the mobile sector and the value they bring will accelerate our positive change. "

However, in April 2015, Microsoft announced a loss. This quarter's quarterly revenue was $ 1.4 billion, up from $ 4 million. According to ComputerWorld, Microsoft has reported a $ 0.12 loss for every phone sold, though it does not charge for marketing and research and development.

Microsoft CEO is fully aware of the weakness of his smartphone as not supported by the developer community, not high-end smartphone impressive enough ... is the cause of Windows Phone increasingly away from opponents iOS and Android.