US: Microsoft to buy LinkedIn in deal valued at $26.2 billion

Microsoft has bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, as the Seattle-based software company seeks to expand its reach into professional networking.

The deal is Microsoft’s biggest-ever acquisition, and follows a pattern of bold moves by chief executive Satya Nadella to reinvent the company that is known primarily as the maker of Windows.

The purchase of LinkedIn will allow Microsoft to link the professional network with its intelligent digital assistant, Cortana, and its customer relationship management software.

LinkedIn, which has a growing network of more than 100m monthly active users, had seen its share price fall 40 per cent this year before the deal was announced. Analysts have expressed concern that the company’s growth would slow and that the subscription service it sells to recruiters was vulnerable to a global economic slowdown.

Both companies are facing increased competition in the professional software market, as companies try to change the way people communicate in the office. Popular work chat app Slack and Facebook’s professional subscription service Facebook at Work have led some analysts to predict that professional use of the internet will be shaped by social networks in the same way that the consumer internet has been.

Full Content: Financial Times

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.