Microsoft Corp. is acquiring the professional social network LinkedIn Corp. for $26.2 billion, one of the largest technology-industry deals on record, as the maker of Windows software attempts to put itself at the center of people’s business lives.
The deal is a way for Microsoft, which largely missed out on the consumer Web boom dominated by the likes of Google and Facebook Inc., to sprint ahead in social tools -– in this case, for professionals. While Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has drawn kudos for efforts to reshape the company and reignite sales growth, the board is urging an even faster shift toward software and services delivered over the Internet.
Microsoft will pay $196 per share in an all-cash transaction, including LinkedIn’s net cash, a 49.5 percent premium to LinkedIn’s closing price Friday. LinkedIn will retain its brand, culture and independence and Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of the social network, Microsoft said in a statement Monday. The price relative to LinkedIn’s earnings makes the transaction the most expensive of any major deal this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“This is about the coming together of the leading professional cloud and the leading professional network," Nadella said in an interview. “This is the logical next step to take. We believe we can accelerate that by making LinkedIn the social fabric for all of Office.”
The deal is the biggest ever for Microsoft as Nadella, 48, focuses on appealing to business customers with cloud-based services and productivity tools rather than regular customers. In a presentation announcing the deal, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft outlined a vision in which a person’s LinkedIn profile resides at the middle of other pieces of their work life, connecting with Windows, Outlook, Skype, Office productivity tools like Excel and PowerPoint, and other Microsoft products.
Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant could provide users with information pulled from LinkedIn about participants in an upcoming meeting, for example, while a LinkedIn news feed will serve up articles based on projects that users are working on. Other products could include a kind of consulting service that will suggest an “expert” who might be able to help with a given project.
For a quick wrap of the analyst commentary on the deal, click here.
Microsoft could build LinkedIn, the largest global professional network, into a major customer relationship management software system for salespeople, pushing into an area dominated by Salesforce.com Inc., said Anurag Rana, a senior analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.
“LinkedIn could really become a really big competitor for Salesforce going forward,” he said.
LinkedIn’s analytics will help power data tools for Microsoft’s Dynamics, which competes with Salesforce in helping companies manage the relationships with their customers.
About LinkedIn :
LinkedIn (stylised as Linkedin) is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 14, 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 2015, most of the site's revenue came from selling access to information about its users to recruiters and sales professionals. As of March 2016, LinkedIn has more than 400 million users, out of which nmore than 106 million are active.
About Microsoft :
Microsoft Corporation (commonly referred to as Microsoft) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond,Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windowsline of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edgeweb browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox game consoles and theMicrosoft Surface tablet lineup. It is theworld's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies.
