Microsoft Corp. agreed to buy
LinkedIn Corp for $26.2 Billion in its biggest ever deal, combining the
software giant fast growing cloud service business with an online network of
433 million professionals. The offer of $196 per share represents a premium of
49.5% to LinkedIn Friday closing price.
Microsoft plans to speed-up
monetization of LinkedIn by growing individual and organization subscriptions
as well as targeted advertising. Despite the rich premium paid by Microsoft,
LinkedIn is selling for well below its peak of more than $270 per share in
2015, but a weak forecast earlier this year sent its shares tumbling and
slowing online ad revenue. LinkedIn went public in 2011 at $45.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest and
most valuable professional network and continues to build a strong and growing business.
Over the past year, the company has launched a new version of its mobile app
that has led to increased member engagement, enhanced the LinkedIn newsfeed to
deliver better business insights, acquired a leading online learning platform
called Lynda.com to enter a new market and rolled out a new version of its
recruiter product to its enterprise customers.
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