A shopping List Suggestion for Microsoft - AppBot.co

2) AppBot

AppBot is a small startup based on Perth Australia. This is software tool for managing the AppStore Reviews by end users. A timely reply to an Appstore Review have a big impact. People will surely check the appstore ratings before downloading a mobile app. To improve the rating the bad reviews should be addressed properly.  So this system will pull review information from various appstores like Google Play Store  or Apple AppStore or Even from Microsoft  Window store and will help the Customer Support team or Product Managers to do their job efficiently. This System can be integrated to various CRM systems as well.

Appbot list Microsoft as their Customer along with Paypal, Stripe, Olx, Pinterest and Twitter.

Why it is important to Microsoft?

This is not a difficult technology. But appbot implemented a small task beautifully. This will be a great addition to Visual Studio Mobile Center ( which is the future of HockeyApp and  Xamarin Test Cloud) and Dynamics 365 Customer Service.  And the price tag will be small. So it should be an easy to digest acquisition.

A shopping list Suggestion for Microsoft - SoundCloud

Here we are suggesting few companies which Microsoft consider buying. The selection of these companies are purely based on our assumptions and knowledge.

Considerations

We didn't consider companies which have more than few billion valuations. We believe Small acquisitions are easy to digest. But many of  micro acquisitions will become acquire  when the product doesn't have much value.  But we consider a little more big companies(Not All) to get better value out of this.



1) SoundCloud -  Suggestion for Microsoft Windows and Devices team

 

SoundCloud is the YouTube for Audio. A social network for Music aspirants. But SoundCloud is not a financially successful company. They don't make much revenue even though they  have 175 million users.That is a huge number!!. Sound Cloud launched a premium  subscription feature SoundCloud Go few months back, but it is not successful yet. So their business model is different. Also they don't have contracts with many original music creators.

Things are exactly opposite for Microsoft's Groove Music service. They have 40 million tracks in their list. But not popular yet. They struggles between Spotify and Apple Music. Microsoft can Simply add this music portfolio to SoundCloud Go and can makes it successful.  Also SoundCloud is a social network for music aspirants that brings much ad revenue potentials.

Spotify tried to acquire SoundCloud few months ago for 1 billion(as per reports), but abandoned the move as they are preparing for IPO. Later there were rumors that Google bid SoundCloud for 500 million. Since SoundCloud's financials are not very good it is likely that the deal can materialize. So if Microsoft wanna purchase it have to spent lil more than 500 million dollars.  ie $3 for a user.. Not a big deal. Microsoft get that much revenue by simply adopting a wise advertisement model. Also Microsoft can control the operating expenses because

1) They already spends music contracts money for Groove

2) They have lot of space in Microsoft Azure Data centers 

Challenges

- Unifying the SoundCloud accounts with Microsoft Consumer accounts is not easy. Skype took years for same.

- Microsoft's ad technology is not very advanced. They currently use display ad technology of AOL and others .Also MS doesn't have a Audio as technology too. So it may become difficult to monetize the 175 million users.