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Microsoft Is Buying LinkedIn For $26.2 Billion (microsoft.com)
Microsoft on Monday announced it is acquiring LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, for a whopping sum of $26 billion -- or $196 per share, in cash. The transactions, the companies say, has already been approved by both boards. As part of the agreement, LinkedIn will get to keep its branding, and will become part of Microsoft's productivity and business processes segment. Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, and now report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. In a statement, Nadella said: The LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business centered on connecting the world's professionals. Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet.LinkedIn has over 430M members on its network. LinkedIn's purchase marks Microsoft's 196th acquisition of another company -- it is incidentally also its most expensive purchase. Four years ago, Weiner laughed at the idea of a Microsoft buyout. Update: 06/13 13:31 GMT by M :According to Bloomberg, LinkedIn shares surged 49 percent in premarket trading in New York to $194.63. Microsoft fell 3.7 percent to $49.60.
Less creepy? Try windows 10.
Microsoft buys yet another Internet giant.
Excuse me, I have to go delete my LinkedIn account now.
Yeah they make about $300 million in profit every year. This means that by 2100 LinkedIn will become a pure profit machine for Microsoft. Those guys think long term!
lucm, indeed.
From an article on The Verge:
While many financial analysts will be inspecting the details more closely, a lot of onlookers simply want to know... why? Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has sent an internal memo to staff about the LinkedIn acquisition, and it attempts to answer why the company is interested in the social networking giant.
Nadella hints that LinkedIn will help play into its Office software in the future. One feature will be LinkedIn's 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." Nadella sees a future where LinkedIn can be more intelligent and feed into Office 365. "New opportunities will be created for monetization through individual and organization subscriptions and targeted advertising," says Nadella.