Where Should Microsoft Drop its Billions?
I'm not a mergers and acquisitions expert. The only thing I'm good at buying is motorcycles, bicycles and groceries. And I'm not too shabby at flea markets. But a couple of my colleagues, Lee Pender and Jeff Schwartz, aren't shy about giving Microsoft advice on what companies to buy. And with a $40 billion cash war chest, Microsoft should be able to afford most of these (maybe with the exception of Facebook, a private company valued at around $50 billion).
Here are a few top prospects: We already mentioned Facebook, but I'd have to see what they have in the pipeline before I agree it's worth $50 bill.
Amazon Web Services is more of a clear-cut option. Amazon is a leader in cloud services, and Microsoft would get an instant customer base it could migrate to Azure.
Citrix could make sense, but Microsoft and Citrix are so intertwined I'm not sure Microsoft needs to give up the cash. Citrix has a market cap a bit north of $13 billion -- about a third of what Redmond has in the bank.
Who do you think Microsoft should snap up? Send your best financial advice to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/08/2011 at 1:18 PM