Do you remember LinkedIn? Yes that’s right, it’s the site you go to to update your CV and beg your current colleagues across the industry to write recommendations for you when you’re about to apply for a new job. As soon as you land a job you forget about LinkedIn and go back to your regular social media sites leaving your profile to fester until the next round of job hunting.
That’s the site that Microsoft have announced they’re buying and are about to pony up some $26 billion to seal the deal which values the company well above their current share price.
I guess it makes more sense for Microsoft, integration with Outlook and Skype may be possible and there’s a chance that they’ll get corporate social media going to help compete with the likes of Salesforce and other competitors. It’s a stretch though, LinkedIn is in trouble with it’s share price bombing from around $255 in 2015 to a low of $100 earlier this year. It had recovered to around $133 but the news of a Microsoft takeover has seen it jump to $193 today.
One thing that LinkedIn will bring Microsoft is the email addresses of just about every professional in the Western World as well as a ton of content from professionals. It’ll be interesting to see how they make use of it.
