It appears that Microsoft will be buying LinkedIn. How are they going to use the data they acquire for competitive advantage? While the obvious access to a half a billion potential customer names is fine, it will also give them great insight into the organizational structure of their customers and competitors. While many sales professionals and organizations invest months and years getting to know each customer, Microsoft now will have intelligence on almost every major customer on the planet. Will this distort the playing field and give them and their partners a huge opportunity to capture business?