back to article Microsoft promises 'equal access' to LinkedIn to get EC green light for acquisition

Microsoft is offering to crack open access to LinkedIn to secure European Commission approval for its $26bn purchase of the social network for suits. The software giant is reportedly offering competition regulators the continued prospect of open access to LinkedIn’s APIs as well as “allowing” OEMs to install LinkedIn on their …

  1. sorry, what?
    Unhappy

    Microstiffed...

    Another step closer to me withdrawing my profile from the site.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Microstiffed...

      What's taking you so long?

      1. sorry, what?
        Boffin

        Re: Microstiffed...

        @Steve Davies 3, ummm.... job hunting?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Microstiffed...

      @ sorry, what? - You mean you'd be happy working for an outfit that thought LinkedIn recruitment was valuable? You could end up working for a manager recruited like that.

      1. Woodnag

        Wow

        You need to found your own business, mate. Because every other workplace will have people doing things, thinking things, and having opinions and interests that you disagree with.

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: Wow

          "You need to found your own business, mate"

          yeah, well, THEN you have to deal with customers and ridiculous requirements, sudden changes in plans (broken promises) that cost YOU money, yotta yotta yotta.

          it never changes. "who's the boss" is your customer now. And in many ways it's worse. But _I_ prefer it. So yeah, better to own the business, sign the FRONT of the checks, and know a HELL of a lot more about what's REALLY going on. And, unfortunately, earn LESS money...

          I have a LinkedIn profile from YEARS ago. I rarely update it. When I access my profile, I have to use a browser that dumps all cookies/history after I close it, because of the aggressive tracking they do NOW [but didn't do when I signed up 'forever ago']. I carefully AVOID having any linked-in data stored locally. Like face-b****, it _CAN_ track you via invisible graphics and scripting and those little icons at the top of certain web pages...

          yeah maybe time to dump MY profile. I'm considering it.

      2. sorry, what?
        Facepalm

        Re: Microstiffed...

        @AC (why AC?), basically I use it to network - hopping across organizations who know people who know me. It's not about being recruited through LinkedIn, though it happens I was contacted directly by my now boss by him finding me on LinkedIn. Sneer at it if you like, but I have historically found it a useful tool. I simply don't want M$ taking my data and doing something I didn't sign up to with it.

      3. Fungus Bob
        Trollface

        Re: Microstiffed...

        "You could end up working for a manager "

        Everybody ends up working for a manager...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Microstiffed...

          Ummm, no. I worked for real leaders. Managers found that they couldn't deal with me.

  2. Mage Silver badge

    'equal access' to LinkedIn

    "continued prospect of open access to LinkedIn’s APIs as well as “allowing” OEMs to install LinkedIn on their devices in addition to social networks from rivals."

    This is a nonsense assurance.

    Still, be worse if Google or Facebook bought it. Then any assurances would be even greater fantasy.

    For a moment today I laughed, I thought Oracle had wasted money buying Twitter (it was Dyn, which is nearly as funny).

    I expect though MS buying LinkedIn might be like Murdoch buying a Social Media (Was it Bebo, Mebo, Myfarce, Unfriends? One of the now dead ones). Or it might be like MS buying Skype, IMO worse as it's some use. LinkedIn is now merely a spam generator, malware spreader, privacy stealer (encourages people to share address book) and pointless to advancing your career. It might briefly have been useful 2006?.

    1. Terry Cloth
      Flame

      And when 'equal access' to LinkedIn stops?

      I get really tired of these ``regulators'' extracting unbacked promises. If you have to change your ways to get the merger, you should put up something of value. Sign a contract so you're bound forever to being unbad, your heirs & assigns ATIMA, and make the penalty something that really hurts---say, 33% of your profits from the time of merger until the breach.

      What I usually see is their promise is limited to 3 years or such. You're gonna tell me MS, Google, Oracle, or whomever, aren't willing to just put it on the back burner until time's up, so they can resume their piratical ways. If so, I've got a bridge you might be interested in.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Opt out?

    "Microsoft would swallow the data of 450 million people in 200 countries"

    It annoys me that whenever this sort of corporate takeover happens - the end users whose data gets transferred to the new owner of the vendor never seem to be given the option of opting out of the transfer, having only ever formed a relationship with the vendor and not the company buying it.

    One might say that you should vote with your feet, but often its not that easy since a lot of services don't allow you to entirely delete your profile (fortunately WhatsApp was very good in this regard!) - aside from which people often have depenencies they've built up on using the service which aren't always straight forward to discard.

    1. Mage Silver badge

      Re: Opt out? WhatsApp

      How do you know they deleted it? Removed from Web doesn't mean deleted. How can we ever know what they have kept, or what Facebook might read off backups? Can we believe a single assurance of Facebook?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Opt out? WhatsApp

        Can we believe a single assurance of Facebook?

        As with everything not audited by an independent 3rd party, the answer would be a solid "no", supported by the fact that keeping generates more profit than deleting.

  4. DrXym

    This sounds even worse

    I don't want equal access. LinkedIn nags me enough about downloading their stupid location tracking app on Android and it'd be quite nice if Microsoft withdrew it.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Microsoft would swallow the data of 450 million people in 200 countries"

    Make that a 444 million and 199 countries as Russia has decided to block LinkedIn

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