Too much. Too late. That pretty much sums up every recent Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) acquisition. Yammer was added to the list in 2012. The software giant in May paid $1.2 billion for the Facebook you've never heard of, despite stiff competition from Salesforce.com, Oracle and others in the business of building corporate social networks.
Last year, Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for video-conferencing service Skype, which has lot of users but no profits. In July, Microsoft said it was writing off 98% of the $6.2 billion it spent back in 2007 on digital advertising network aQuantive, another 2012 reminder of Microsoft's keen deal-making.
Management changes, backpedaling, and a new sales contender. Some automakers had a great 2012, and some would like to move on to 2013.
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