Microsoft and LinkedIn announced that Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, the professional networking site, has officially closed, after getting final European Commission approvals earlier this week.
The announcement comes six months after news first broke of the deal as noted by the TechCrunch.
Today, LinkedIn has over 467 million registered users, making it the largest professional networking site focused on the working world. People use their services both to make work connections with other people in their fields, but also to look for jobs and hire people. Few months later after acquisition, LinkedIn announced subscription based learning skills training service called LinkedIn Learning.
LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner, sent an internal memo to the company’s employees and went through the areas where the two companies (Microsoft & LinkedIn) would be working together, and how they will remain independent. Following is the full text of memo shared by Weiner at LinkedIn Pulse:
Team,
Six months ago, we announced our intention to be acquired by Microsoft. At the time, Satya and I shared the background of the deal and our joint vision for changing the way the world works. Today I’m pleased to announce that we’ve just officially closed the acquisition. I’m more confident than ever that our move to join forces with Microsoft will accelerate our mission to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, and ultimately help create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.
Over the past few months, the LinkedIn and Microsoft leadership teams have been meeting to understand and prioritize the opportunities ahead. We’ve been able to see first-hand the level of innovation being driven at scale — in artificial intelligence, machine learning, the cloud, devices, and more. We’ve also had the chance to build a deeper relationship with Satya and the Microsoft leadership team, and to witness the strategic and cultural shifts they are driving, and the impressive traction they are seeing as a result.
As we move forward, our day-to-day operations will essentially remain unchanged: We’ll continue to have the same mission and vision, the same culture and values, the same brand, and the same leadership team.
Our members still come first. Our commitment to privacy and security will not change. And our partners are still core to our business. We’ll continue to remain focused on growing LinkedIn and creating value for our members and customers. Over the coming months we’ll start sharing more about how we’re integrating products, especially in areas where we can leverage Microsoft’s scale, e.g.,
- LinkedIn identity and network in Microsoft Outlook and the Office suite
- LinkedIn notifications within the Windows action center
- Enabling members drafting résumés in Word to update their profiles, and discover and apply to jobs on LinkedIn
- Extending the reach of Sponsored Content across Microsoft properties
- Enterprise LinkedIn Lookup powered by Active Directory and Office 365
- LinkedIn Learning available across the Office 365 and Windows ecosystem
- Developing a business news desk across our content ecosystem and MSN.com
- Redefining social selling through the combination of Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365
Getting to this point wouldn’t have been possible without the teams who have been working tirelessly on the close since we announced the deal in June. I’d like to thank them for all they’ve done to set us up for success as we begin our next chapter.
In so many ways we’re just getting started, and I couldn’t be more excited about the future.
Next play.
Jeff
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