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Just because you're arguably the most influential technology company on the planet doesn't mean everyone's going to add you to their friends list.

With $50-billion in annual revenue, a stranglehold on the market for PC operating systems and a rapidly expanding product base that includes a game console, mobile operating system and media players, Microsoft Corp. is truly one of a handful of international power brokers in the tech world.

But when reports surfaced last week that Microsoft was interested in making a play for Facebook Inc. – the biggest tech buzz generator of the past year – it ignited an instant backlash.

Many users of the popular social networking site lashed out, saying any takeover would mark the death of Facebook. Some even vowed to close their accounts if such a deal was struck.

“I genuinely use FB to easily keep abreast of friends' and family's lives, but if M$ ended up owning it, I'd find another way,” someone using the pseudonym “slapdash dapoint” wrote in the comments section of a news story on a website last week.

Marley B from Vancouver echoed the thought: “If they are in, I am out. I am not alone in this.”

The sentiment is not uncommon of late.

Similar threats were lobbed against the Redmond, Wash.-based company when it announced its unsolicited takeover bid for Yahoo Inc., with many analysts suggesting the very engineers and developers Microsoft coveted would rather quit than work for the world's largest software company.

But why? Is it just easy to love to hate the company that seems to have its fingers in a great many pies?

“They're the victims of their own success,” said Mihkel Tombak, a professor of technology strategy at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. “There's a big contingent in the software community and [there are] a lot of users who really hate Microsoft.”

As a result, some consumers and developers who have watched Microsoft strong-arm its way to dominance in everything from Internet browsers to office software have been left with a bad taste in their mouths. Not even multimillion-dollar fines from U.S. and European regulators have softened the resentment some harbour.

“They hold a lot of power with respect to PC manufacturers, software developers – and they exercise that power,” said Niraj Dawar, a professor of brand strategy and marketing at the Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ont. “In the exercise of that power they upset a lot of people.”

And Microsoft's competitors do everything they can to keep that antipathy boiling.

Apple Inc.'s “Hi, I'm a Mac … and I'm a PC” advertisements, for example, don't so much emphasize Apple's computers and software as lampoon Microsoft's as being stodgy, out of touch and obtuse, experts say. And Apple's marketing campaign is indicative of a larger trend in the technology industry: The fastest route to success for many companies is to position themselves as the anti-Microsoft.

“Microsoft is easy to attack because it is such a powerful and dominant brand,” Prof. Dawar said.

It's all just part of the cost of doing business, Microsoft Canada spokesman Paolo Pasquini said.

“Microsoft's brand is recognized around the world, and with great global brands, admirers and critics exist,” Mr. Pasquini said.

“Within that group, lies an incredible opportunity for us. A tremendous amount of work is happening at Microsoft to bring together our organization with a collective focus to deliver great end-to-end experiences to consumers.”

However, even though Microsoft's history of secrecy with its programming codes – as well as business strategies – have been judged by some to be monopolistic and belligerent, the company still has a “phenomenal” brand, Prof. Dawar said.

“You wouldn't be able to sell billions of dollars of software if you didn't have a good brand.”

Much of the vitriol against Microsoft stems from the company's dominance of the PC operating system market; consumers are reluctant to switch away from Windows because they have grown accustomed to it, while software developers are forced to work with Microsoft or risk losing access to the majority of the world's computers, Prof. Tombak said.