Microsoft Acquires LinkedIn for $26 Billion
Microsoft Corporation and LinkedIn Corporation announced this morning that Microsoft is acquiring the assets of the popular business social network for $26 billion.
This morning, Microsoft Corporation and LinkedIn Corporation announced that Microsoft is acquiring the popular business social network assets for $26 billion. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the acquisition promises synergy with the company’s popular productivity suite Office 365, and ERP solutions, Dynamics. LinkedIn, launched in 2002, is the world’s most popular professional network with more than $400 million users worldwide. LinkedIn connects businesses and users through hiring, marketing, and work experience.
Microsoft and LinkedIn Announces Acquisition of Professional Network
Microsoft’s vision for both companies is to harness the value of LinkedIn’s professional social network to bring value to end-users using popular services such as Office 365.
How people find jobs, build skills, sell, market and get work done and ultimately find success requires a connected professional world. It requires a vibrant network that brings together a professional’s information in LinkedIn’s public network with the information in Office 365 and Dynamics.
This combination will make it possible for new experiences such as a LinkedIn newsfeed that serves up articles based on the project you are working on and Office suggesting an expert to connect with via LinkedIn to help with a task you’re trying to complete. As these experiences get more intelligent and delightful, the LinkedIn and Office 365 engagement will grow. And in turn, new opportunities will be created for monetization through individual and organization subscriptions and targeted advertising.” Source
If approved later this year, LinkedIn would be Microsoft’s biggest acquisition to date. Microsoft has made some interesting purchases over the years. Recent acquisitions include the developers of smartphone keyboard, Swift, and Xarmin developer tools. In 2012, Microsoft acquired Yammer, a business-like version of Facebook for companies. Skype and Nokia’s phone business are two of Microsoft’s biggest acquisitions over the past 10 years. The company attempted to purchase the online portal Yahoo! for $44 billion in 2008, but the deal fell through after disagreements with shareholders overvaluation.
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