Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 billion

Microsoft is buying social-networking site LinkedIn in an all-cash transaction for $26.2 billion, company officials announced June 13.

Credit: Microsoft

The move fits in with Microsoft's increasing push to focus on business customers. Founded in 2002, Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn had approximately 400 million users in 2015. The company provides a social network alternative for finding professional and work connections, sharing resumes and potentially finding new posts. In 2015, LinkedIn bought Lynda.com for $1.2 billion to help the company bolster its online learning/training and talent-development capacities According to the press release, Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction. The transaction is expected to close this calendar year, subject to the approval of LinkedIn shareholders. Many are asking Fabtechnoid why Microsoft bought LinkedIn (and why the company paid so much for the company). we admit, we, too are also scratching our heads. Microsoft's press release mentions LinkedIn's new version of its mobile app and the enhancement of its newsfeed "to deliver business insights." (Check off buzzwords "mobile" and "insights.) It also mentions Lynda.com as a key asset, as well as LinkedIn's Recruiter product, which targets enterprise customers. Microsoft bought enterprise social-networking vendor Yammer for $1.2 billion in 2012, and since then has ended up cribbing a number of Yammer technologies in its own Office 365 service. Yammer is one of a number of overlapping technologies from Microsoft that is part of its social-networking portfolio.

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