Microsoft, today, announced that it is acquiring LinkedIn,
the social network for professionals with 433 million users,
for $26 billion, on $196 per share, in cash.
The transaction has already been approved by the boards
of LinkedIn and Microsoft.
LinkedIn is keeping its branding and product. It will become a
part of Microsoft’s productivity and business processes
segment. LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner will report to Microsoft
CEO Satya Nadella.
Read the letter Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent to
employees about the buy after the cut:
Team,
I’m excited to share that today Microsoft announced a deal to
acquire LinkedIn. You can see how Jeff Weiner, the CEO of
LinkedIn, and I envision the opportunity ahead in this public
presentation.
This deal brings together the world’s leading professional
cloud with the world’s leading professional network. I have
been learning about LinkedIn for some time while also
reflecting on how networks can truly differentiate cloud
services. It’s clear to me that the LinkedIn team has grown a
fantastic business and an impressive network of more than
433 million professionals.
Given this is the biggest acquisition for Microsoft since I
became CEO, I wanted to share with you how I think about
acquisitions overall. To start, I consider if an asset will
expand our opportunity — specifically, does it expand our total
addressable market? Is this asset riding secular usage and
technology trends? And does this asset align with our core
business and overall sense of purpose?
The answer to all of those questions with LinkedIn is squarely
yes. We are in pursuit of a common mission centered on
empowering people and organizations. Along with the new
growth in our Office 365 commercial and Dynamics
businesses this deal is key to our bold ambition to reinvent
productivity and business processes. Think about it: How
people find jobs, build skills, sell, market and get work done
and ultimately find success requires a connected professional
world. It requires a vibrant network that brings together a
professional’s information in LinkedIn’s public network with
the information in Office 365 and Dynamics. This combination
will make it possible for new experiences such as a LinkedIn
newsfeed that serves up articles based on the project you are
working on and Office suggesting an expert to connect with
via LinkedIn to help with a task you’re trying to complete. As
these experiences get more intelligent and delightful, the
LinkedIn and Office 365 engagement will grow. And in turn,
new opportunities will be created for monetization through
individual and organization subscriptions and targeted
advertising.
Jeff and I both believe we have a significant opportunity to
accelerate LinkedIn’s growth and the value it brings to its
members with Microsoft’s assets and scale. In fact, when
Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, and I spoke about the
opportunity for us to come together, he called it a “re-
founding” moment for LinkedIn and an opportunity to reach
the mission the company set out on 13 years ago.
The opportunity for Office 365 and Dynamics is just as
profound. Over the past decade we have moved Office from a
set of productivity tools to a cloud service across any platform
and device. This deal is the next step forward for Office 365
and Dynamics as they connect to the world’s largest and
most valuable professional network. In essence, we can
reinvent ways to make professionals more productive while at
the same time reinventing selling, marketing and talent
management business processes. I can’t wait to see what our
teams dream up when we can begin working together once
the deal closes, which we expect will happen this calendar
year.
A big part of this deal is accelerating LinkedIn’s growth. To
that end, LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand and
independence, as well as their culture which is very much
aligned with ours. Jeff will continue to be CEO of LinkedIn,
he’ll report to me and join our senior leadership team. In
essence, what I’ve asked Jeff to do is manage LinkedIn with
key performance metrics that accrue to our overall success.
He’ll decide from there what makes sense to integrate and
what does not. We know that near term there will be no
changes in who reports to whom so no reporting relationships
at Microsoft will change in that regard. This approach is
designed to keep the LinkedIn team focused on driving results
while simultaneously partnering on product integration plans
with the Office 365 and Dynamics teams. During the
integration, we’ll pick key projects where we can go deep
together that will ultimately result in new experiences for
customers. Kurt DelBene will lead the overall integration
efforts at Microsoft in close partnership with Qi Lu and Scott Guthrie.
I’m on the LinkedIn campus today in California and will host a
call for investors at 8:45 a.m. PT with Jeff, Brad and Amy –
please join if you can. Following that, I’ll then spend the day
meeting with the LinkedIn team. Tomorrow, I’ll host a special
Microsoft employee Q&A — I hope you can make it.
So far, what I’ve learned about the LinkedIn team is how much our cultures share many of the same attributes.
We both care deeply about individual and collective growth, and
find deep meaning in the work we do to make a difference in
our world. Together we’ll do just that.
While I’m in northern California sharing our vision to empower
professionals, the Xbox team is in southern California at E3
sharing our vision to empower gamers. I encourage you to check out the E3 press briefing, which starts at 9:30 a.m.
Pacific Time.
Finally, if you’re not on LinkedIn, join up now and start using
and learning more.
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