That’s all it took.
Think about it: Microsoft could have had TweetDeck, and all its users for the measly sum – to Microsoft, not me! – of $40 million, or £25 million.
That’s all: £25 million!
However, Microsoft allowed Twitter to purchase the asset.
Well, at the time of the purchase, TweetDeck accounted for about 23% of all Twitter traffic. Moreover, at that time (as now), Microsoft’s social media efforts had a recurring engagement at the Toilet Bowl.
You’d have thought that light bulbs would be popping all over the melons of those smart folks at #1 Microsoft Way, in Redmond. None did.
The vig on the deal was that Twitter (the company) was being cautioned by US antitrust authorities about stifling access to Twitter info. Meaning that Microsoft would have been in a position to cry ‘foul’ if and when Twitter tried to close the data spigot.
Access to all those users would have allowed Microsoft to do two things:
1) Put TweetDeck’s userbase to good use by leveraging it in order utilize it as a beachhead in creating its own social network, or
2) Use TweetDeck as a cudgel to pummel Twitter into giving it extremely favorable terms in raw Twitter search data.
At worst, Microsoft could have used it for something. Anything!
Instead, they sat on the sidelines, and Twitter executed a perfect Sun Tzu maneuver, and took a potential rival out of play.
Yesterday, Twitter sounded the death knell for TweetDeck.
In case you are wondering, this sort of missteppin’ isn’t new to Microsoft.
Microsoft is the same company that famously closed its blogging platform, Windows Live Spaces, and gifted 25 million – that pesky figure again! – blogs to WordPress for nothing. Determined to make people forget that mess, Microsoft recently decided to repeat an act of corporate bone-headedness by shutting down Live Mesh (the former FolderShare) and sending all users to LogMeIn gratis.
So you see, Bad Microsoft still rules.
Earlier today, the EU fined Microsoft $733 million USD for reneging on an antitrust agreement.
So, I take that back: Bad Microsoft doesn’t rule. Stupid Microsoft rules in Redmond!
© 2002 – 2013, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited
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