
Uber Acquires Part of Bing’s Mapping Assets - caseysoftware
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/29/uber-acquires-part-of-bings-mapping-assets-will-absorb-around-100-microsoft-employees/
======
AndrewKemendo
This acquisition plus the Carnegie Mellon robotics lab acquisition [1] makes
it pretty certain they are doubling down and putting huge technical
investments into autonomous cars. They are perfect for it too - but damn if
that isn't quick considering how long they have been on the market.

[1] [http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-
carne...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carnegie-
mellon-in-robotics-1433084582)

~~~
FlailFast
Agreed, and another thing they're doubling down on: disentangling themselves
from Google. Eventually they'll stop using Google Maps, and I'd guess Google
Ventures will sell their stake in Uber at their next stratospheric private
financing raise, if they haven't already.

It's vaguely reminiscent of Google/Apple's friendly status up until 2007, when
it quickly deteriorated to "frenemy" then "direct competitor in nearly every
market."

~~~
jeffbr13
Ah, but wouldn't Google want to keep it's investments in sectors that it
believes will grow, even if they're competing with them, a la Microsoft &
Apple[1]?

[1]: [http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2010/05/apples...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2010/05/apples-stock-rise-could-have-meant-5-billion-for-
microsoft/)

------
sehugg
Any idea on how this affects their alliance with OpenStreetMap?
[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bing](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bing)

~~~
maxerickson
_There are no planned changes to this._

[https://twitter.com/rbrundritt/status/616028862531530752](https://twitter.com/rbrundritt/status/616028862531530752)

(from the Bing Maps program manager)

------
erickhill
This is notable in my mind as I can't recall a "reverse-acqui-hire" of this
size quite like this. What I mean is, usually it is the MSFTs/GOOG/APPLs of
the world scooping out chunks of tech talent from smaller firms or taking them
over altogether, not the other way around.

------
angersock
I particularly like the part where the assets^Whuman resources^W^Wemployees
are bundled off with the tech.

Hopefully they got some kind of decent compensation?

~~~
caseysoftware
Usually when there's an acquisition like this, there's some sort of bonus as
long as the employee stays for X months/years. I think 2 years is pretty
common but considering how young Uber is, it may be different.

~~~
goatforce5
If they're getting Uber options it could be a real blessing.

------
umeshunni
Does this mean that Uber now has an engineering presence in the Seattle area?
Or are they acquiring the old Vexcel team based in Boulder?

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Uber has had an engineering presence in Seattle for at least four months:
[http://www.geekwire.com/2015/uber-opening-seattle-
engineerin...](http://www.geekwire.com/2015/uber-opening-seattle-engineering-
office-led-by-isilon-vet-tim-prouty/)

------
onewaystreet
At first glance this seems like a terrible business decision by Microsoft.

~~~
x0x0
How is bing anything but an enormous gift to google?

What I see is a marginally profitable business (finally, following years of
huge / $4B per year losses) that obscures google's true monopoly in the US.
For all the claims of 20% search marketshare, on my personal blog, google has
98.7% marketshare in the last 10k search visits. It's an open question if bing
is worth the hassle -- is it foreseeably profitable enough that msft should
continue in that business?

imo, it would quite damaging to google if msft shut bing down, reallocated the
engineers to more profitable projects, and let google own their 75% + bing's
20% == undeniable monopoly search marketshare, with the immediate antitrust
implications, in the US.

Microsoft's biggest threats appears to be things like chromebook, google apps,
and ios/android rendering windows and office largely unnecessary. I don't see
how having a search engine helps any of the above.

~~~
myth17
A lot of microsoft's cloud expertise comes from running bing. Also how do you
expect them to push stuff like cortana if bing (the brain) shuts down.

~~~
x0x0
Why is cortana important? They will be competing with similar free products
that are hardware subsidized or ad subsidized. Where and how does this turn
into income? msft just sold off a big chunk of their ad operations, and almost
certainly will not be selling large amounts of hardware. Xbox one has sold
~10mm units, and as a road into the living room has been mostly a complete
failure. That's neither large enough for ad subsidies or hardware subsidies to
work. What am I missing?

~~~
notatoad
Cortana, siri and Google now are the future of advertising and sales. "Okay
Google, order me a pizza". "Hey siri, call me a cab". "Cortana, I need
restaurant reservations at 8. Something nice".

The virtual assistant's job is to pick a supplier and spend your money on your
behalf. Everybody wants a piece of that.

~~~
michaelt
Maybe - but users won't go for it if there's a principal-agent problem. Google
and Apple will face a temptation to choose suppliers that pay the highest
commissions and they'll have to overcome that temptation if they want their
services to take off.

They won't get users to say "Siri, book me a flight" if it books you a $500
American Airlines flight when you wanted a $300 Southwest flight.

