Will This Deal Help Microsoft Corporation Challenge Facebook Inc.?
Microsoft could soon buy "social news reader" app Prismatic for about $30 million, according to a recent TechCrunch report. Prismatic recommends articles based on users' interests, what their friends are reading, and how they interact with the stories it suggests.
Apple , Google , Facebook , and other companies were also reportedly interested in buying the start-up.
Prismatic. Source: Google Play.
Microsoft's hidden social networking agenda Microsoft generally isn't associated with social networking, an industry dominated by companies including Facebook, Twitter , and LinkedIn .
However, Microsoft has quietly beefed up its social networking capabilities over the past few years. In 2012, it acquired Yammer, an enterprise social networking service, and launched Socl, a Pinterest-like site that links to Microsoft and Facebook accounts. Last year, Microsoft invested in Inlope, an interest and location-based social networking app. The application lets users subscribe to various news categories, then read recommended articles suggested by individuals located in their neighborhood.
Those social networks are minuscule compared to their first-tier counterparts, but they represent pieces of a puzzle that could be unified under a concrete strategy. With Prismatic's socially recommended articles, Microsoft could get another piece of the puzzle to complement Socl and Inlope.
Let's put these pieces together to see where Microsoft's social networking plans are headed, and whether Facebook and other major players should worry.
Socl. Source: Google Play.
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Will This Deal Help Microsoft Corporation Challenge Facebook Inc.?