Microsoft just bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, but what are they going to do with it?
Microsoft today revealed that they have entered into an agreement to buy social networking site LinkedIn, which aims to bring business professionals together. The deal was reportedly inked for $26.2 billion, which is no small chunk of change.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed employees in an open letter about the move. In it, he talked about LinkedIn’s value to the professional world and how those values align with Microsoft’s focus on providing an enterprise home for the many businesses out there.
While LinkedIn will retain their own brand and overall structure and staff, current company CEO Jeff Weiner will report to Nadella, and the two will collaborate on ways to push LinkedIn forward with many Microsoft services in the future.
The two sides will collaborate on new projects — such as potentially integrating LinkedIn into Skype, Office 365 and Cortana — but the company will mostly maintain overall autonomy, with Microsoft only giving LinkedIn some baseline performance numbers to achieve. How they achieve those numbers is still up to LinkedIn’s discretion.
For now, though, LinkedIn is still LinkedIn, and this move should only mean better things from here on out.