I’ve cut myself out of every social network, except for two. One of these is Twitter, which I keep active because it entertains me. The other is LinkedIn, which is pretty much the only social network available for professionals looking to make professional connections without a lot of game invites and the like. Apparently, there’s real value in having access to nothing but professionals and job-seeking types, and Microsoft is willing to pay a premium for that access. Microsoft is buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion dollars.
Microsoft plans to combine LinkedIn with its cloud computing services, marrying a growing business with 433 million professionals across a variety of fields. Microsoft also plans to work at getting more advertising and more subscriptions to LinkedIn. LinkedIn will be folded into Microsoft’s productivity and business processes unit.
“I have always had a great admiration for LinkedIn,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “I have been talking with Reid (Hoffman, LinkedIn’s controlling shareholder) and Jeff (Weiner, LinkedIn’s CEO) for a while … I have been thinking about this for a long time.”
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