
Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B - whatok
http://news.microsoft.com/2016/06/13/microsoft-to-acquire-linkedin/#sm.0000pigrxf7dne36z7o2gp4nrghse
======
exelius
Great move. IMO this is Microsoft making a play for HR managed services --
look for them to sign a big deal with ADP / BenefitsExpress / buy someone like
Zenefits to complement this purchase. The power and value of LinkedIn is as a
recruiting platform; and recruiting is a big-money problem that's only getting
worse. If they can turn LinkedIn into a benefits management platform, that
would be a huge win for Microsoft and likely resonate with employees as well
-- while giving Microsoft de-facto ownership of the supply chain for knowledge
workers.

Microsoft is a traditional B2B company; they make boring enterprise software
and sell it through traditional resellers. As more and more core business
functions (like HR managed services) start being sold through these channels,
it makes more and more sense for Microsoft to get into it. More importantly,
Microsoft already has a sales relationship with nearly every company in the
world -- and they can now cram a high-margin talent acquisition / management
product down that sales pipe as well.

IMO this is one of those acquisitions that wouldn't have made sense for Apple,
Google or Facebook -- their customer base is too consumer-centric. But given
Microsoft's heavy enterprise sales base, it absolutely makes sense for them.
Nadella has finally gotten Microsoft to realize it's not really competing with
Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook -- its real competition is Oracle,
Salesforce and IBM. Viewed through that lens, this is a great purchase.

~~~
dimino
This would be _great_ , if you're right, because this is how we get to a place
where we maintain our resumé in one place (LinkedIn) and don't have to play
the whole "Please upload your resumé. Now please enter in all the details of
your resumé." hellhole.

~~~
ssharp
There is a Fortune 200 headquartered in my area that, by far, has the worst
application process and software I've ever seen. Aside from REQUIRING you to
type in information like your high school's address and your high school GPA,
they also have pre-screening booby-traps which you may need to lie to get past
(e.g. my wife was applying for an HR job there and they asked if she had a
bachelor's degree in HR, which she didn't, she has a JD and has worked in HR
for years and she was filtered out of the applicant pool because of that). One
of the last pieces of the process is answering a few long-form answers on why
you'd be a good fit. They have four or five questions but the gotcha is if you
lose focus on the textfield and have to click it again, it erases your answer.

~~~
hackaflocka
Great story. It's a sure sign that a strong bureaucracy has set in when one
sees this. It's common in government organizations, but becoming more common
in non-government (especially large) organizations.

~~~
stcredzero
_becoming more common in non-government (especially large) organizations._

Been like that for awhile. You're just getting to know more of the vast ocean
of all the bureaucratic mindset that is out there.

~~~
hackaflocka
I think it's a strategy by "those in power" to tightly control who gets hired.
They make the application process so bad that people with options opt out of
applying.

------
hammerbrostime
I'm surprised by the amount of negativity about the deal here on HN. It seems
like an excellent match. I could see LinkedIn as an asset for Microsoft
anywhere in the realms of work collaboration and HR. No other social network
besides LinkedIn comes close to complimenting MicroSoft's wheelhouse of
enterprise utility.

~~~
mrweasel
It think the negativity is mostly due to the price tag. If I was a shareholder
I would be furious over Microsoft paying $26billion for a money losing
company. Even if Microsoft see some potential the rest of us aren't, and we
have to assume that they are, they still need to find a way to turn a profit
on the deal.

Given that they bought Nokia, only to shut it down, more or less, it would be
reasonable for the shareholders to get a plan, detailing how LinkedIn will
boost Microsofts business, with more that the $26 billion.

~~~
riazrizvi
I wonder how much of the value was attributed to vanity metrics like the
number of times people check the site? An inflated number since LinkedIn
started using short term exploitation tactics like sending Notification Badges
for your contacts' Birthdays and Work Anniversaries. Personally I also feel
fleeced out of an outrageous monthly subscription that was sneaked through an
undeclared AppStore transaction (I got >50% of the money back but not all). At
this point I'm planning on deleting my account.

~~~
EdHominem
Did you consider suing? It's the only way to reach today's modern corporation.

~~~
therein
Or you know, you could post it here and I bet you can find someone who works
for the company.

~~~
EdHominem
Why? Dark patterns are intentional, you know. That's theft, as if they stole
your wallet.

You don't accidentally bill people for a subscription service - and if you did
you'd reverse it the instant you discovered it, not try to hide.

Save your righteous mercy for people who steal from _you_.

------
JumpCrisscross
Per LinkedIn's Form 8-K [1], LinkedIn has agreed to pay Microsoft a $725
million break-up fee if (a) LinkedIn's Board of Directors withdraws its
recommendation of the merger, (b) LinkedIn accepts a superior offer, or (c)
LinkedIn's stockholders turn the merger down. Note that LinkedIn _may_
terminate the merger without paying the break-up fee if it avoids announcing
an acquisition within one year of so terminating [2].

[1]
[https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000110465916...](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000110465916126712/a16-13234_18k.htm)

[2]
[https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000110465916...](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000110465916126713/a16-13234_1ex2d1.htm)

~~~
shostack
Is it normal to have the clause about the shareholders turning the merger
down? Seems like one helluva way to ram it down shareholders throats without
much option to say no.

~~~
pbarnes_1
That's why it's done.

~~~
wtbob
As a shareholder I would find that kind of behaviour to have been the exact
opposite of the kind of duty my mangers owe me. I'm surprised it's legal.

------
whack
This is a fantastic move for Microsoft, and IMO, a premature throwing-in-the-
towel moment for LinkedIn. At $26B, that's less than 10% of Facebook's market-
cap. That's a steal for the world's biggest Social-Professional Network, and
the medium through which most recruiting could conceivably happen in the
future. Given that MS currently has no social presence at all, but has a
fantastic enterprise sales channel, LinkedIn is a great asset for them.

The idea of going to physical career fairs in thousands of colleges around the
country, and collecting/handing out paper resumes just to make the connections
happen, always seemed like a woefully inefficient way of connecting job
seekers with employers. In the future, this process is going to become more
and more digital, and networks like LinkedIn are going to become vital hubs in
this new wave. If Microsoft can find a way to accelerate and monetize this
trend, this acquisition could well be one of the best deals of the decade.

~~~
c_c_c
LinkedIn at 10% of Facebook's cap is super over valued. It's pure spam.
Everyone is suggesting Microsoft will improve, add features! It would have
been better and cheaper to create from scratch. LinkedIn exists in a space
that none of the big player care to enter seriously.

~~~
askafriend
It would not have been cheaper to create from scratch, certainly not in a
reasonable amount of time. You're truly underestimating just how sticky a
product like LinkedIn really is.

------
_yosefk
Skype, Nokia, Minecraft, LinkedIn. Also Yahoo, almost, at one point.

Best of luck to Microsoft with its latest acquisition. It doesn't look that
sensible though.

~~~
mwambua
Skype is one of the more regrettable acquisitions. Linux support has been
deplorable ever since.

~~~
icc97
At least it does work. Which of course Skype for Business completely doesn't,
even in browsers (on Linux). Even then buying a Skype for Business account on
Windows it's the most confusing mess as they assume that you're buying the
full Office 365 suite and want to take over your email sending. Which contains
this massive admin section that's basically empty and doesn't make much sense.
So then you end up with some terrible user@blah.microsoftonline.com account
which unless you pay for more than the basic package isn't an email address at
all. So people still have to manually send you the link for any meeting that
you are a part of. Then you have to do a real hunt to find the download for
Skype for Business - cause they all assume you just bought the whole Office
365.

I also can't connect to any Skype for Business account via Skype on Linux -
just for messaging. That does work for some people for my Skype account on
Windows to connect to Skype for Business but half the people don't get my
contact requests or they are never shown online.

Of course then there's Slack. Slack works everywhere. On top of that Slack
(non-video) calls work almost everywhere except for the Firefox and Desktop
apps on Linux.

~~~
lbenes
From Mobile OS/Nokia to Business Chat/Skype, MS has a knack for have all right
pieces at the right time and still missing big shifts in the industry.

I saw demos of Surface ( Now PixelSense ) almost a year before the first
iPhone was announced. My company was using Skype back in 2006 to do what we do
now with Slack. It's amazing how a top tech company can stay on top while
consistently being so far behind the curve.

------
grandalf
The biggest thing hampering LinkedIn's growth has been such a strong tech
market. This is also why many HN readers are not familiar with it. When the
market is strong, those with technology skills can find work in a few hours
without using any platform.

But if the market dips, things like LinkedIn's recommendations will become
useful and relevant. Less so for technology workers than for those with softer
skills, but far more relevant than they are today.

LinkedIn is pretty big in the NYC startup scene because overall people are
more ambitious in a career ambition way... Silicon Valley has more ambition to
build cool things and so having a LinkedIn profile feels like wearing a suit
and having one's teeth professionally whitened and going around formally
shaking hands with people.

LinkedIn is also one of the few innovators in dark pattern UI research. Each
week I get an invitation email accidentally sent by someone over 60 who signed
up for LinkedIn and spammed his/her entire Gmail address book with invites.

I hope the acquisition isn't being driven by LinkedIn's lead-gen
functionality, since that has been the main reason I've considered deleting my
profile. Most of the people who attempt to connect are selling something,
which reduces the platform's usefulness as a social network.

The best thing about the acquisition is that lots of that money will flow back
into the startup ecosystem.

~~~
marssaxman
Not familiar with it? LinkedIn has been working their evil magic for so many
years it's hard to imagine how you could be involved in the tech industry at
all without having had to fend off at least a little bit of their bullshit. I
am totally familiar with them, having ground my way through the process that
eventually stops their relentless flow of content-free nag mail, and my
feelings can be described in a single word: contempt.

------
lujim
Congrats to anyone who was holding LinkedIn stock. Microsoft's bid of $196 per
share has LNKD up $63 bucks a share or 48% in premarket.

Edit: Also a cautionary tale for anyone shorting a stock that fundamentally
sucks but could be a buyout target. Use options instead!

~~~
colinbartlett
Perhaps congrats on the loss and write down if you bought above $196. Looks
like LNKD traded north of $200 for a good portion of the last 2 years.

~~~
lujim
Ouch, I knew it took a big hit after dismal earnings and guidance last time
(or two) but thought it had recovered a bit. Congrats on breaking even then I
guess to anyone holding since Feb.

------
moon_of_moon
$26 Billion is actually fair : The question is, would it provide earnings of
$2.6 Billion per year discounted over the next ten years?

I think so.

Keep in mind, MS sells $90 billion of product and services a year, so we're
talking less than 3% of that. (MS cost of revenue is about a third of
revenues!)

1] First imagine LinkedIn used as the primary sales channel for MS products.
Head of sales is probably salivating.

2] And then there is advertising. I think part of the reason LinkedIn is
valuable is this: apart from LinkedIn there is no simple way (barring credit
cards or other documents) to verify if an account who signs up to an online
service is a real person, or who they claim to be. For an advertising
business, this is gold: Expect the LinkedIn federated sign on to be integrated
into many microsoft services (and by more third party services.)

Strategically if you are selling software/anything, you have are better off
targeting the top 10% of earners rather than a gazillion broke teenagers.

Of course there are fake profiles on LinkedIn, but they are minor, and weeding
them out is probably easier than on other platforms.

~~~
therein
> $26 Billion is actually fair : The question is, would it provide earnings of
> $2.6 Billion per year discounted over the next ten years?

> Keep in mind, MS sells $90 billion of product and services a year, so we're
> talking less than 3% of that. (MS cost of revenue is about a third of
> revenues!)

30%

~~~
moon_of_moon
Annualized over 10 years. One of the ways you value a company is by
discounting the future cashflows.

------
chdir
MS : "If you don't upgrade to Windows 10, we'll create a linkedin profile for
you."

------
Xyik
I wish people would read company's quarterly performance reports before making
claims about whether we're in a bubble and whether company x is worth y.
LinkedIn generates a ton of revenue and is very arguably worth its valuation.
Just because you don't use LinkedIn or SnapChat or whatever else has a
ridiculous valuation these days doesn't mean its valuation is not justified in
some way.

~~~
pilom
The problem is that revenue is not profit. If expenses are greater than
revenue and the trends don't show that changing soon (i.e. "default dead")
then it is extremely hard to justify such a high valuation. There are the
employees, the physical infrastructure, the code they've written, the brand
name, and maybe the marketing value of the users, but granting a valuation
based on consistently negative profit is somewhat silly.

~~~
Xyik
That's debatable since many companies like Amazon are able to turn a profit by
sacrificing growth. Good point though and this information is also available
in quarterly earnings reports. The main argument I was making really is that
people should take a look at some numbers before having such strong opinions.
I believe last I checked LinkedIn was profitable.

~~~
golfer
LinkedIn is not profitable. They lose money every quarter. Revenue is around
$800-900MM a quarter though.

------
nevi-me
I hope this will usher in an era of less unethical behaviour from the company
under new leadership. Congratulations to shareholders.

Anyone know why they'd negotiate an all cash settlement?

~~~
jacquesm
> I hope this will usher in an era of less unethical behaviour from the
> company under new leadership.

/s ?

~~~
nevi-me
Not sarcasm, I'm thinking MS purchases the company knowing what its issues (or
perceived) are. I see MS as the lesser of 2 evils, a company I can generally
trust with my data.

The 'Dark Patterns' that LNKD employs would hurt the rest of MS, so this less
unethical behaviour would be as that result.

Also helps that LNKD will be consolidated with MS in future, so maybe less
pressure on the bottom-line as they'll be a part of the MS group instead of
shareholders expecting certain EPS from them.

~~~
jacquesm
I thought the 'less unethical' was the giveaway, as if you expect them to
still be unethical.

~~~
Kliment
With a culture as deeply infused with an utter lack of respect for user
privacy, reputation or safety, I would expect them to be unethical in
essentially all cases, short of, perhaps, a complete management purge.

------
btbuildem
"LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence" \-- well
that's a shame..

------
cdnsteve
What a terrible time to be burning that much cash, just before the next
recession, and on a resume site. I was starting to see some good things coming
from Microsoft but this makes me shake my head and question leadership big
time.

~~~
theseatoms
> just before the next recession

Citation needed.

------
mathattack
This makes a ton of sense for everyone. LinkedIn is too small to be a dominant
platform like Google or Facebook. If someone were to buy it, it would be
someone with a strong enterprise presence, with an incomplete social
footprint. It would also need to be a company with a high enough market cap to
afford the purchase, and PE ratio for it to appear dilutive.

Who fits the profile?

\- IBM - They are in share buyback mode, not major purchases

\- Oracle - Social may not matter to them

\- SAP - Too many issues from prior acquisitions

\- HP - Splitting, but building

Microsoft is the ideal buyer.

The key is integration. Microsoft doesn't have a great history for
integration, but that was also under the prior regime.

------
preetish
My take on this:

\- Better integration of Dynamics CRM with LinkedIn \- A move towards social
selling with LinkedIn Sales Navigator \- Enriched LinkedIn news-feed with
updates from work life (example: meetings, projects) \- Better Cortana
(personal assistant) that can help you professionally \- Integration of Office
suite with LinkedIn learning \- Usage of Bing for professional search

~~~
Swannie
Yes, me too.

The ability to automatically import contact's data into Dynamics, with
integration directly into Skype for Business. One click call integration for
all your customers!

Staff directory as a service? Maybe. Merged with Office 365 that might make
sense.

------
flashm
Here's looking forward to my Hotmail account email address being accidentally
'shared' with LinkedIn and the never-ending LinkedIn spam returning.

------
vadym909
What's interesting about this deal is what didn't happen 1\. Google who is
right next door and wants to make a dent in Cloud didn't go after them 2\.
LinkedIn who is a monopoly in this category- decided to give up trying to go
its own- seems like they knew they topped out

~~~
davidcgl
Are you saying Google should've bought LinkedIn? How does that contribute to
Google cloud platform?

~~~
vadym909
Sorry. I meant Enterprise

------
cjblomqvist
A huge database which can be utilized for sales. Who to talk to with what
profile, which kind of approach is likely to work, and so forth. A great
opportunity for some data mining folks!

~~~
pieter_mj
What I never get with these huge acquisitions is what about the user's
privacy?

They never agreed with Microsoft to have their data but somehow ms
automatically gets access to it?

~~~
mcintyre1994
Straight from the privacy policy: "If there is a change in control or sale of
all or part of LinkedIn, we may share your information with a third party, who
will have the right to use that information in line with this Privacy Policy."
So not Microsoft specifically but they did agree LinkedIn could transfer their
data to any buyer.

------
surds
LinkedIn has a huge presence in the professional users and businesses. A large
number of people from non-tech backgrounds never got onto LinkedIn because
they never kew of it or didn't really bother to create a profile here.

Imagine integrating LinkedIn profiles with Microsoft's professional tools or
even Windows. The reach of LinkedIn will be massive if Microsoft gives it a
push through Windows.

It's likely that this boost does not necessarily convert into increasing
revenue, but it can certainly boost the number of active users that LinkedIn
has.

And I hope, now that it is acquired, LinkedIn will stop pushing us to spam all
of our contacts about joining it, updating profiles or whatever.

------
adellee
" Will continue to operate independently ".

Why do they even say that. Microsoft didn't pay 20billion for a passive
investment.

Such a silly thing to say.

~~~
Pxtl
And either way, as an MS and LI user, I _want_ MS to meddle. I want them to
fix the dumpster-fire that is LinkedIn. Nobody _likes_ LinkedIn except
recruiters.

~~~
c_c_c
It won't be fixed. If anything it will be worse...

------
kozhevnikov
LinkedIn owns Lynda, but Microsoft (MSDN) partnered with Pluralsight,
interesting how that will play out.

~~~
bogomipz
Well both of those are underwhelming in terms of both content and user
experience.

~~~
vcjohnson
I've had no experience with Lynda but what's underwhelming about PS? It
definitely seems to lack of depth in a lot of courses but provides a good
overview/refresher on things in my experience.

~~~
bogomipz
As you mentioned lack of depth is the larger one, but also the rate at which
they add new content is not exactly great. Lastly they tend to reuse the same
author's for certain subjects which creates a lack of diversity in the
teaching. These last two are common to both Lynda and Pluaralsight. At $25.00
and $30.00/month this is one of the highest priced subscription services on
the internet and as such you would expect much more from them.

~~~
vcjohnson
Yeah I'll admit I hadn't considered lack of instructor diversity. Subscription
fees are thankfully paid for by my employer so it's not a huge issue for me
personally but I could understand how that would be difficult to justify for
individuals.

------
satysin
Holy fuck that is a lot of money. How on earth is LinkedIn worth anywhere near
that?!

~~~
laser
Well they did do $3 billion in revenue last year.
[http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=LNKD+Income+Statement&annual](http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=LNKD+Income+Statement&annual)

~~~
mrweasel
Revenue isn't really relevant when you're losing money as fast as Linkedin.
They have no real competitors, and they still aren't able to turn a profit.

Even $3 billion is to much.

~~~
jonknee
They're not losing money all that fast and are spending heavily on growth.
They also have a lot of money in the bank ($3.1B in cash and short term
securities) so that's pretty much exactly what it's there for.

------
davidiach
Noob question: how can Microsoft buy LinkedIn given that large parts of it are
owned buy random investors who might not want to sell?

What happens to someone who, lets say, bought $10k worth of LinkedIn stock two
years ago and has no intention to sell. Will that person be forced to sell his
stock?

~~~
dragonwriter
Generally, the corporation's internal governing documents will specify the
rules for sale, but the norm is a majority vote of the shareholders. Those who
voted against may have some remedies if the firm was undervalued, but, yes,
they can be forced to sell stock.

~~~
shawn-butler
The remedies vary but in Delaware these disputes are heard in Delaware's Court
of Chancery.

You can google for recent judgement in the (re?)purchase of Dell by Michael
Dell. Chancellor ruled the stock was underpriced by the terms of the sale but
the remedy is available only to those shareholders who sued not all.

Appraisal is a bizarre bit of corporate law to say the least.

------
pif
I had been thinking recently about deleting my LinkedIn account. The question
has just been settled.

~~~
swalsh
It's a lot like dating. Today you can simply post a profile on a site/app, and
algorithms can now match you. Your exposure is now hundreds or thousands of
people (no matter your preferences). The happenstance of being in the right
place at the right time is cut down so much, it's almost irrelevant. It's far
more likely a great match will be on the 1 of 3 places single people go,
within the last month. It makes better matches faster. It's a superior way to
date.

Without being on LinkedIn, you're now relying on only the network you've built
to date. Unfortunately, LinkedIn is not as efficient as OkCupid, but it's
where everyone is, and it's the best place to find a career match. Saying
you're going to delete your LinkedIn account is a lot like saying "eh, I'm
just going to grab drinks at the bar until I meet the right person"

~~~
cinquemb
Personally, I never had any decent job offers from linkedin. Everything has
been lukewarm or spammy at best. Angel list on the other hand, works way
better for me, so if a gun were put to my head to choose between either and
drop the other, I'd drop linkedin.

Linkedin seems kind of useful as far as signalling who/what types of people
you are connected to if you don't add everyone at a whim when they request
(like sub 250 connections), but I don't really know what that's worth to me or
to others, and I don't think this a gun to the head moment.

~~~
pif
Same for me. Linkedin was only useful as a sort of social network to keep
contacts with former colleagues. For the Swiss job market, jobup.ch is the way
to go.

------
Twisell
This could be totally unrelated, but damn this is a pretty stupid bad signal.

LinkedIn's iOS Developer Community cancels WWDC watch party after Microsoft
purchase: [http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/06/13/linkedins-ios-
deve...](http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/06/13/linkedins-ios-developer-
community-cancels-wwdc-watch-party-after-microsoft-purchase)

~~~
Velox
I imagine it's to stop hoards of reporters from coming in and bugging them for
as many details as possible.

------
prajjwal
I'm genuinely curious as to what makes LinkedIn worth _that_ much. On the
surface it just looks like Microsoft is trying to commit suicide.

As as aside, how many startups in Silicon Valley are rushing to up their spam
game in the wake of this? :)

------
mckee1
It'll be interesting to see how they integrate LinkedIn with Yammer (if they
do at all). Particularly with the launch of Facebook at Work recently too.

------
spydum
just my own prediction.. msft will attempt to replatform the entire stack onto
Azure, making heavy use of their Azure platform services as a way to show how
scalable they are (sort of the same play they made with hotmail decades ago).

~~~
gtirloni
That's a very safe and sure bet. Why it would go any other way would be really
puzzling.

~~~
chrshawkes
Will they also rewrite it from Node to .NET core?

------
swalsh
How does it work when a public company acquires another public company? If you
have existing LinkedIn shares, do they get converted to Microsoft shares?...
or do they just disappear one day, and a pile of cash takes its place?

~~~
colinbartlett
In this case, the deal was structured as all cash. So the latter is exactly
what happens. One day in your brokerage account you will see $X for every Y
shares you had.

~~~
greg7gkb
What about employee equity? Especially unvested options or stock units?

------
bogomipz
Can someone explain how Microsoft bought a publicly traded company?
Shareholders own Linked in, so did they buy a controlling interest and or is
there currently a tender offer circulating for all holders of the common
stock?

Also curious that MS is valuing it Linked stock at $196 dollars a share when
before the weekend it was trading at $133. Did they believe it was undervalued
by almost 50% then? That seems dubious.

~~~
andyjohnson0
In the announcement Hoffman is described as the "controlling shareholder".
Presumably this controlling interest [1] gives him the ability to agree to the
sale without necessarily having the agreement of the other shareholders.

[1]
[http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/controllinginterest.asp](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/controllinginterest.asp)

~~~
bogomipz
Ah, I missed that pertinent detail in the announcement, makes sense. Thanks.
Facebook is similar in this respect - a controlling person and publicly traded
entity.

------
smaili
To put things in perspective, WhatsApp was bought in October, 2014 for $22
billion.

------
rmykhajliw
I believe it will be great for whole industry, because microsoft money pushed
Likedin to more user and developer friendly environment (Yes, I suppose they
will open API again aka twitter). Better API will bring more business tools
integration, so it increases role of Linkedin, as result it will push the
whole social media market to a new level, instead current stagnation.

------
gk1
I think Salesforce is about to get much stronger competition from Microsoft's
Dynamics CRM. If they connect Dynamics CRM with LinkedIn's massive database of
orgs and professionals--a treasure trove for marketing and sales teams--and
embargoes other CRM software from that data[0], I can see them taking market
share from Salesforce.

[0] LinkedIn did exactly this when it acquired Rapportive—another popular
sales tool. They let Rapportive continue accessing LinkedIn data but blocked
competitors from doing so.

PS - They mention that, as a result of this acquisition, Office 365 users
might be able to invite other professionals to collaborate on their documents
or projects. It's interesting that they chose such a weak example, when it's
clear there are much greater benefits they'll be able to offer. One I already
mentioned, and many more are mentioned in this thread. Probably trying to keep
competitors guessing?

------
oblio
The comments here are hilarious, they really reveal the IT bubble.

The only real complaint about this purchase would be that LinkedIn was
overvalued. And I wouldn't bet on that since Microsoft surely sent a big team
of their brightest cookies to make a valuation of the company.

But other than that, LinkedIn fits: it is a corporate social network, if you
will. I know that "corporate social network" is almost an oxymoron, but bear
with me. It is social in the sense that users register and interact with each
other just as on a regular social network, but ultimately the service is
corporate focused. LinkedIn has created one of the biggest and best maintained
databases of employment information (and of possible business contacts) in the
world. As TheArcane said, LinkedIn is "Facebook + Monster on steroids".

If you don't believe me, try to speak to people you know, active professionals
outside of the IT sector and see how many of them have LinkedIn profiles.
Better yet, talk to people who are not in employer-dominated sectors (i.e. not
like IT, where the demand for qualified workers greatly exceeds the supply).

~~~
anentropic
does anyone actually interact on LinkedIn? I thought it was just a platform
for recruitment spam

~~~
rck404
Imagine this: A recruiter messages you and then follows up with a skype
interview through LinkedIn.

~~~
julianz
So you can tell them in person that you don't live in the same country or work
in even vaguely the same area rather than ignoring them as you do now?

------
apapli
LNKD is extremely powerful when paired with CRM. To the point that MSFT might
have seen this as a better choice than buying Salesforce, especially as their
own in house CRM offering (Dynamics) is becoming very strong, and far more
likeable for end users.

The biggest loser from this deal was Salesforce, they will be gutted.

This move took me completely by surprise, and I'm pretty impressed in Nadella
for pulling it off. Although LNKD is a pretty ordinary proposition
(financially - and what else really matters nowadays) by itself, 1 + 1 can
equal 3 if it is linked tightly with Microsoft's productivity products such as
Skype for Business, Outlook, CRM etc. And MSFT took advantage of LNKDs poor
recent performance to buy them "cheap" while making their management look like
hero's when the market was beginning to think they were anything but.

~~~
chrshawkes
you work at hubspot with that ridiculous terminology? 1 + 1 = 2 period.

~~~
apapli
I'm not sure what you mean? No I don't have anything to do with hubspot...

------
jacquesm
Wonder how many people will use this as an opportunity to either create a
linkedin profile or to delete the one they already have. Change-of-control
risks on a deal like this are substantial.

This is also an excellent reminder that you never know where the profiles you
create will end up.

~~~
ElijahLynn
Yeah, I am debating closing mine today.

~~~
SuperKlaus
You better hurry before Microsoft removes that "feature".

~~~
ElijahLynn
LOL, sounds like it won't be until the end of the year for the deal to have a
chance to succeed, and only then will Microsoft get the LinkedIn keys. So I
think I will wait until the deal has a better chance of closing.

------
gloves
Genuine question... what do MS stand to gain from this?

~~~
ravivyas
One can only assume that they want to dig their heels into entreprise.
LinkedIn is massive when it comes to professional connections & Hiring, even
company PR. LinkedIn has a bunch of products that can connect well into MS’s
ecosystems and add value there.

------
nxzero
Seems grossly over priced on a per active user basis: ________

26.2 billion / (425 million*25% active) =

$247 per active user

~~~
phamilton
Is that 25% active an estimate or a reported number?

~~~
nxzero
The source for the 25% of users being active in a month was from the 3rd
quarter earnings report for 2015.

[http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/29/linkedin-now-
has-400m-user...](http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/29/linkedin-now-
has-400m-users-but-only-25-of-them-use-it-monthly/)

------
maxerickson
Somewhat more info in the press release:

[http://news.microsoft.com/2016/06/13/microsoft-to-acquire-
li...](http://news.microsoft.com/2016/06/13/microsoft-to-acquire-linkedin/)

~~~
michaf
That makes $60.5 per user. Compared to other social networks this seems to be
within a reasonable range.

------
bede
Perhaps LinkedIn will use fewer evil antipatterns now that its ownership has
something resembling a reputation to uphold.

~~~
gloves
Unsure if you're being serious... don't need to look much further than Windows
10 auto update to see how much Microsoft care...

~~~
simonswords82
Microsoft employs fifty thousand engineers. A group of them fucked up with
that Windows 10 debacle. I reckon on the whole Microsoft very much do care
about their reputation.

~~~
tremon
So you're arguing that it was just "a rogue employee" that made that decision
and executed it?

~~~
simonswords82
No, I'm saying that a group of individuals in the company made the decision,
including managers and perhaps senior execs. It was not a board level
decision, at least imo.

------
agentgt
I bought linkedin a couple of months ago at like 108 or so... I'm debating
whether or not to sell half or all my stock... needless to say the wife is
thrilled that I finally did some investing right :)

~~~
mhudson125
I was wondering this too, but I think half the reason the stock jumped up to
~192 is due to the sentiment of this acquisition being approved by the FTC.

Since it's a cash deal, you'll miss out on ~$4 share, and since you bought in
Feb/March, you'll end up paying your normal tax rate in capital gains. My
guess is they approve this deal before Feb/March so no clear advantage holding
for that reason.

Perhaps someone else could chime in as well?

------
myth17
Most Important Question : Do LinkedIn employees stop getting free food or
Microsoft employees get free food now?

------
aNoob7000
I'm not sure what Microsoft is getting with LinkedIn for $26bn.

I know it is a little crazy, but I think they would have been better off
buying Redhat for $15bn or Canonical (Ubuntu linux) for even cheaper.

~~~
pjc50
That would attract truly unprecedented levels of hostility and a declaration
of war by segments of the Linux community.

~~~
vidarh
Probably. On the other hand, Redhat kind of pulled up the drawbridge and
focused on parts of the market that don't care so much with the RHEL / Fedora
change. Of the major Linux distributions, I think Redhat is the one whose
userbase would be least likely to be upset.

A few years back it'd have been totally unthinkable, but today, given that
MSFT has surprised repeatedly with a more friendly approach towards the open
source community, and given that Redhat - while still contributing _a lot_ \-
has pulled back in a sense, it would be less problematic.

Wouldn't be trivial to pull off, by any means, though. I think if MS would
like to pick up a major Linux vendor, they'd better spend a year and lots of
money buttering up the community with more open source releases and PR first.

~~~
gtirloni
Red Hat pulled back how?

As for buttering any Linux distribution, I think Microsoft has focused
traditionally on SUSE (even announced an "alliance" back in '11).

~~~
vidarh
> Red Hat pulled back how?

By focusing on the enterprise, they became much less visible for individual
Linux users. Even though Fedora is still there, it was a huge shift in how
engaged Redhat apppeared to those not directly involved with projects that
Redhat are involved in.

They still contribute massively, but they are much less visible outside of
enterprise users than they used to be.

Of course this is not all their doing - the rise of Ubuntu also contributed,
but arguable Ubuntu would have had a much harder time if it wasn't for the
Redhat shift.

------
retube
That's quite the pay day for Reid Hoffman. 14.5m shares at $196 = $2.8bn. All
cash deal. Ching ching!!

------
chadwilken
Two shitty companies merge. I can only imagine what Microsoft has planned for
LinkedIn. Hopefully this is one of those acquisitions where they purchase it
and shut it down months later.

------
scotu
Are the guys in the picture at the top photoshopped on another pic?

~~~
r2dnb
Regarding the picture at the top of the article, it looks like it's been
photoshopped.

The lighting is inconsistent with the background. I think the tree on the left
has been added with the same lighting to try make the lighting of Satya and
the two others unnoticed.

Without the tree, this picture would be blatantly laughable. At the same level
as [http://goo.gl/S6y3Qx](http://goo.gl/S6y3Qx)

------
dadafoo
The internet is becomming more and more like real world businesses.

We're going to be left with four or so big companies. Facebook, Google,
Microsoft.

Yahoo Twitter e.t.c will be swallowed up next.

~~~
maciejb
Don't forget Amazon

~~~
ChrisRus
will not be swallowed

------
dec0dedab0de
Here's hoping Microsoft keeps up it's recent good guy persona, and starts
actively identifying and removing dark patterns from LinkedIn.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
/sarcasm?

~~~
dec0dedab0de
No, I'm serious. I'm not a big MS fan, but they've been doing some good things
lately. Hopefully they can make LinkedIn feel less scummy.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Prior to forcing people's computers to move to Win 10 and using scummy badware
tactics (close the dialog to install, no "do not install" option) I'd have
agreed; MS looked like they were reforming.

------
quantumhobbit
The only explanation I can come up with is an aquihire of dark ui-pattern
experts from LinkdIn to better trick users into installing Windows 10.

------
wwweston
An angle I haven't seen anyone mention:

They now own Lynda.com, one of the strongest software and general education
entities out there. This gives them not only a channel for promoting their own
software (or providing some really comprehensive integrated help/training),
but an insight into what kinds of software and other training people are
putting time into.

------
sctb
We updated the link from
[http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/06/13/microsoft-
to-...](http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/06/13/microsoft-to-acquire-
linkedin/#sm.001trr8qq17rjdt2xt1122l06mc16), which points to this.

------
rsyntax
IMO, Microsoft has the means and resources to sift thru linkedIn metadata to
gain an hiring advantage over their competitors. In addition they could
probably infer what other companies are doing thru their hiring and searches.
There is no other platform like this with this scale another monopoly; human
resources.

------
korginator
Interesting to see the obvious pro-microsoft bias in comments here. I can only
imagine the worst from microsoft and their user-hostile behaviour.

* trojan-like telemetry impossible to control or block

* malware-like behaviour through "legitimate" software update channels, force-feeding windows 10 on unwilling customers

* embrace-extend-extinguish, mission accomplished by destroying Nokia's smart phone business

* their recent shenanigans with skype, and how they killed Linux support

* their abysmal, hard-to-use new directions in UI design (flat, 2D, no contrast, paper-like, or even metro for that matter)

I can already think of three to four nasty ways they can leverage (abuse) all
the LinkedIn user information, work history, contacts, and networks, and I'm
sure they will do it based on their recent user-antagonistic behaviour.

Oh, but they've nicely polished up their PR machinery so everything's cool
now.

~~~
lanevorockz
I totally agree that Hacker News is becoming quite bias ... This in itself
should be raise with the ycombinator itself, the bias is what pushed Slashdot
down

~~~
steveoc64
At least in the discussions area, there is a distinct lack of "hacker culture"
opinion expressed on any topic, given the name of the forum. At least from
where I am standing, this reflects very poorly on ycombinator, and the "Tech
Culture" that they are putting investors in touch with.

 __Trigger Warning - Doubleplus Ungood Thoughtcrime ahead __

For a certain portion of the readership, Microsoft can do no wrong ... and
when they do wrong, it 's never their fault.

Perhaps the site should be renamed to "Young Upwardly Mobile Professionals
with Rose Coloured Glasses and No Clue, Living in an Artificially Inflated 1st
World Bubble News" would be a more accurate title.

This acquisition makes perfect sense for anyone who thinks that "the real
economy" is in great shape, and middle management jobs are likely to
experience unheard of growth over the next few years. Layoff numbers are just
made up propaganda, and everyone around the world loves the US Dollar.

When this level of backslapping groupthink starts to predominate, its a pretty
sure sign that things are rotten in Denmark, and should be a clear warning
sign for smart investors in this market. But .... each to their own, its their
money they are gambling with I suppose. (or conversely, other people's
retirement hopes that they are gambling with)

 __ __*

Anyway, I find it interesting that Linkedin's infrastructure is written in a
mashup of Java, Scala, Ruby, and God knows what else.

You can almost guarantee that somewhere in the corridors of power, some pointy
haired boss types are putting together a PowerPoint® presentation on how they
are going to port all of Linkedin's codebase to .NET in 3 easy steps, for
great profit. What could possibly go wrong ?

Big congrats to anyone that manages to cash in their Linkedin stock in the
near future. If so, you have just managed to sell premium seats on the deck of
the Titanic for top dollar !!

------
f1nch3r
At least Microsoft will be able to tout the inability to delete a LinkedIn
profile as a feature and not a bug.

------
spyckie2
I've read many complaints about how linkedin is a tool that has so much
potential if it was just done right... and no one here is entertaining the
possibility that MS is thinking the same way? I know MS has a bad track record
for acquisitions but I think this one has a lot of potential.

------
miguelrochefort
"Think: everyone who graduates from college and looks for a job will now have
a Microsoft account."

[https://twitter.com/saschasegan/status/742342770891862016](https://twitter.com/saschasegan/status/742342770891862016)

~~~
nacs
Am I the only one who has applied and gotten jobs without ever creating a
LinkedIn account?

After hearing all the horror stories about their email spam (and how they spam
all your contacts) and how random recruiters contact you with irrelevant
offers, I have (so far) managed to stay completely off LinkedIn and hope to
never have to sign up.

~~~
Geekette
You probably have an account: LinkedIn has many ghost accounts auto-generated
based on findings from trawling users' address books/contact lists.

------
ralphael
I know bandwidth is cheap these days but including a 14.9mb cover image on
such a major story....?

------
chris-at
I for one welcome our new Windows overlords!

Let's hope they pull another Nokia with this, er, beloved company.

------
wslh
If I use Skype acquisition as a guide we can expect advertisements all over
the site very soon.

------
padobson
LinkedIn closed public trading on Friday at ~131 per share. This deal
represents a $196 per share price - so anyone that purchased on Friday is
looking at ~50% ROI.

Is this the best non-Facebook ROI for a social network that's been available
to the public markets?

------
statictype
Headline should have been "Microsoft adds LinkedIn to their professional
network"

~~~
ajharrison
Underrated post.

------
anilshanbhag
I am currently a grad student at a top5 university in US and been at a top5 in
India. I can say from experience that LinkedIn is dying and no longer valued
as professional profile. LinkedIn had a nice concept of connection, however
after a few accept alls I have 500+ connections with a similar amount pending.
The messages I receive are garbage, the feed is stale. There is no incentive
to open the website and I have unsubscribed from all their marketing email as
they are ~ spam. Maybe this is just me but I feel WhatsApp is way more popular
/useful/growing and Microsoft paid more than that for a dying network.

~~~
vthallam
True, Linkedin is spam and their apps/feed are copycats of FB. But, they have
a monopoly over professional networking and so recruiting. The data is the
gold mine, there's no way any new company would be able to convince 440
million people to create profile with all the information. So all MSFT wants
to is to probably improve their product line, cross sell Office/Dynamics to
Linkedin's customers and may be buy some HR/payroll to create a complete
suite(Recruting+ HR + Communication + Enterprise tools).

------
travis_bickle
On their press release[1] presentation[2] they have shown this as Microsoft's
Graph - [http://imgur.com/elacuzH](http://imgur.com/elacuzH). How and Why is
the question.

[1]-[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor](https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/Investor) [2]-[https://c.s-microsoft.com/en-
us/CMSFiles/InvestorPresentatio...](https://c.s-microsoft.com/en-
us/CMSFiles/InvestorPresentation.pptx?version=a19a08fd-6017-7f22-64c3-2f9aec438edf)

------
Eclyps
Do many people use Yammer? The company that I'm with tried it a few years back
and it just wasn't useful for us. I wonder if they will end up merging Yammer,
or at least some Yammer features, into LinkedIn at some point.

~~~
Touche
It's essentially unchanged since they bought it. I think all they really did
was put Yammer notifications in Outlook. I wouldn't be surprised if LinkedIn
turns out the same way.

They had to write off the Nokia deal (over 7 billion I believe), this might be
the next one of those.

~~~
zaroth
I think their ability to write-off most of the $26b in a couple years must be
a defining feature of the whole transaction. I.e. "Oh well, at least the Fed
is paying for half of it!"

------
tim333
Stock price movements after one day: MSFT down ~ $12bn, LNKD up ~ $9bn.

Looks like they overpaid a bit.

------
neovive
I wonder what the future holds for Lynda.com which was just recently purchased
by LinkedIn. I've been a member for years and was already concerned over the
LI acquisition. Hopefully, they are not lost in the shuffle.

------
vermontdevil
Oh wow. This purchase does not make any sense. What benefit does LinkedIn
bring to Microsoft?

Wouldn't surprise me another competitor will emerge and replace LinkedIn. It's
time anyway with their annoying spamming of late.

~~~
simonswords82
Imagine you're one of the biggest companies in the world.

On from that imagine you could afford to buy one of the most comprehensive
CRMs in the world and all the lovely data it holds. In addition to the fringe
benefits, if Microsoft use this purchase intelligently they'll reap serious
rewards from it.

(I fucking hate Linked In, but I think it's a legit purchase for Microsoft)

~~~
vermontdevil
True - I can see them using this purchase to sell more cloud services by
mining the data for connections.

------
0xmohit
[https://twitter.com/ThePracticalDev/status/74234336148344832...](https://twitter.com/ThePracticalDev/status/742343361483448320)

------
cm2187
I was already very upset with the direction Windows 10 was taking in term of
privacy. Now Microsoft wants to be big in social network. I hate to say that
but it is really time to ditch Windows.

------
Zigurd
Plusses: LinkedIn is distinctive among social networks. That's one reason
Facebook hasn't killed LinkedIn, yet. Though I increasingly find my business
contacts interact with me on Facebook rather than LinkedIn. A bigger plus may
be that a business-oriented social network is strategically coherent for
Microsoft.

Minuses: LinkedIn is relatively small. It's not that well-implemented. It has
an oddball business model. It has no messaging component, and that's where
social networking is going.

------
kbenson
I think it's telling of the times, my increased opinion of Microsoft, and my
horrible impression of LinkedIn, that I expect this to result in better
LinkedIn behavior than previously. Microsoft still has its own problems, but
in my opinion they are far better than the skeezy feeling I get from
LinkedIn's marketing and promotion to "linked" email accounts (that is,
addresses they've associated to you and send notices that people are trying to
contact you on).

~~~
hackaflocka
Facebook does something similarly sleazy. I have multiple email accounts.
Facebook hasn't made the connection that I'm the same person. On each email
account I regularly get emails saying that my profile has already been set-up
and all I have to do is log-in for the first time by clicking on this link
(and yes, I have a Facebook account linked to a different email address).

~~~
kbenson
I'm not sure how this isn't considered spam. Unless you've expressly told them
that the other account is yours, there's no way to ensure they aren't sending
unsolicited email,as "we thought they would want to know" is not a valid
defense against the _laws_ that exist.

------
deskamess
This kinda makes sense from an enterprise social network perspective. This
could tie really well and augment their messaging products (Skype for Business
(was Lync)). Most professionals may not have Skype or may not wish to expose
their Skype ids but maybe ok with LinkedIn as that has always been their
professional front. So basically every LinkedIn account has Skype integration.
I can see the marketing angle from a group meeting, and eventually
collaboration perspective.

------
selmat
Another account which will be forcibly connected with ms credentials.
Opportunity to collect another sensitive information in an effort to create
"better UX".

~~~
gloves
Worked well for Google +...

------
mdev
I hope this does not end up being a Yammer 2.0.

I also don't see other companies advertising jobs on the platform owned my a
big tech giant whose sole purpose isn't that. I don't think they will make
more money in the "recruiting" side.

This deal sounds like a 50% premium but that just brings it back to what it
was 6 months ago, lesser than the peak price. Sounds more like LinkedIn just
gave up.

Only positive thing I see is, that MS can bundle HR software with Office 365.

------
dorianm
LinkedIn is becoming this internet monster.

Where is the ethic alternative that is for everybody? (e.g.: AngelList is only
for tech startups stuff and not for waiter kind of stuff).

------
fiatjaf
I hope LinkedIn is shut now forever now, with all the spam.

------
makecheck
In addition to what others have said (what does it get Microsoft, etc.), how
would this even be allowed? It would mean most recruiters _going through
Microsoft_ to get to candidates. I can just imagine how well that would go
over at other tech companies: how can they be sure Microsoft isn’t getting
“first crack” at people, etc. and does Microsoft then know which companies are
about to lose employees?

~~~
gtirloni
Most recruiters going through Linked Inc. is any different?

What would qualify a company to run an job board?

~~~
makecheck
For one thing, the _scale_ is very different: Microsoft is into almost
everything, whereas LinkedIn as a company was relatively focused. The number
of competing companies that cared about LinkedIn seeing information is far
smaller than the number of companies that compete with Microsoft in some way.
Never mind the fact that Microsoft owns a _platform_ used by the vast majority
of devices.

------
jernfrost
Sounds like an awful lot of money. Must be cheaper ways to make the money
LinkedIn is supposed to make them.

And MS has a pretty bad history with these big acquisitions. MS Kin failed.
Skype is not what it used to be. People seemed to start leaving it after MS
bought it and made it worse. Nokia was a big disaster.

Shouldn't they have learned by now? I pretty sure MS is not going to make back
the money spent on LinkedIn.

------
donkeyd
Prediction: LinkedIn will integrate with office 365, and you will be forced
into a LinkedIn for Business account when you use Office 365. You can choose
to make your information public, private or a combination of both (hopefully).

This will be marketed as a single place to keep up-to-date resumes, towards
both job seekers and corporate HR people who want better insight into their
own workforce.

------
minimaxir
Why would Microsoft release a major M&A announcement at 8:35 AM EST / 5:35 AM
PST? It's not even the professional workday yet!

~~~
andylynchnz
To get the news out without disrupting the markets - it's fairer to allow
people to see news like this while the instrument is not trading.

~~~
lloyd-christmas
As a prior equities trader, these were our year-makers if it happened during
trading hours.

~~~
shostack
Can you elaborate on this for a non-trader?

~~~
lloyd-christmas
LNKD closed at $131 per share on Friday and opened at $191 on Monday. That's a
$60 move. The news happening outside of trading hours means that all the
bid/offers didn't get executed, just that the valuation changed of currently
held stock. If it happened during market hours, that move would 1) be more
exaggerated due to human psychology, and 2) you'd actually be able to trade
the news. If you managed to catch 1,000 shares at 131 before it jumped, you'd
be making $60k on an investment of $131k. If you managed to catch only half of
the move on 10,000 shares, that's $300k in profit on a $1.3m investment. To
put it in perspective, day 1 on my job I was given $1m to "play with and get
to know my keyboard shortcuts".

[http://f.ptcdn.info/713/028/000/1424666722-5-o.png](http://f.ptcdn.info/713/028/000/1424666722-5-o.png)

In the image above, the stock price is 3.85. The green columns are bid/ask. It
shows that there are 40,000 shares people are trying to buy at 3.84, 33,100
shares to buy at 3.82, etc. On the other side, there are 5 million shares
someone is trying to sell at 3.86. If this imaginary stock suddenly was bought
for $5.00 per share, You'd be able to buy 5 million shares at 3.86, (for about
a $20m investment) and sell all of that for $5, for a profit of $5.7m (this is
obviously the ideal case. More likely, those people selling at 3.86 would try
to pull their offers before people could buy it, and other people would be
trying to buy those 5m shares as well).

In that context and in regards to LNKD, it didn't really trade all that much
volume prior to this, so you wouldn't be able to buy all that much stock. But
a $60 change is pretty massive. Even catching a fraction of the move is pretty
much "free money" just for having your hands on the keyboard.

------
ckastner
For reference, IPO in May 2011 was for $45/share, and they closed at $94.25 on
the first day for a total market cap of $9bn, according to this [1] source.

[1]
[http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/technology/linkedin_IPO/](http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/technology/linkedin_IPO/)

~~~
joshvm
The share price hasn't exactly been rosy recently, so at least the
shareholders have something to look forward to.

[http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=...](http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=LNKD:NYQ)

[http://www.reuters.com/article/linkedin-results-research-
idU...](http://www.reuters.com/article/linkedin-results-research-
idUSKCN0VE1N0)

------
janvdberg
Add that one to the list:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft#Acquisitions)

Looking trough the list this is probably the biggest acquisition for Microsoft
(in monetary value). All-cash transaction nonetheless.

~~~
icc97
It's the 196th purchase that they bought at $196 / share. Somebody was having
a laugh in the Finance department.

------
hitlin37
so in the end, a recruiting problem is solved bya software company, now could
be named as the big L. wondering what happened to all those people who studied
Human Resource as a management branch and what are they doing now when whole
recruiting thing is being run by bunch of sw engineers sitting in silicon
valley and crunching big data.

~~~
duderific
You still need human beings at companies who do HR, at least at decent sized
companies. Someone needs to set up the interviews, walk people around, be the
recipient of questions about payroll, PTO etc., and that is work nobody else
wants to do.

------
koolba
I predict the next version of AD/Outlook will allow for direct integration
between a company's workforce information and said workforce's public profile.
Why bother with scraping your user's contact list when you can feed directly
from the source system that already includes their name, email address, and
job title.

------
mvip
Was this Microsoft's elaborate $26bn marketing plan to get the media to look
away from Apple's WWDC announcements?

~~~
CephalopodMD
My thoughts exactly! Not that that's the main idea, but it is an odd
coincidence that the announcement was today.

------
rloc
This is huge.

As an ex-Microsoft, I really don't understand that move. It doesn't make any
sense. If the goal is to compete with the like of Facebook, I don't think
it'll work as Linkedin is a business network. It makes me want to sell my
stocks (-3.63% pre-market).

If I were MS I would have bought slack to replace both Sharepoint and Yammer.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Why is having a social network always just about competing with Facebook?
Microsoft is very much in the business space, this is a business focused
social network. Not a bad place to work on your business brand.

The word is they almost bought Slack, but decided to heavily invest into Lync
instead, turning it into Skype for Business and such.

------
kartD
Shoot! I was planning to buy the stock soon. Say what you will about the
crappiness of the product and the dark patterns, but it was a great stock to
buy and probably the only social network with a diverse split in revenues
(excluding Facebook - they use acquisitions to diversify revenue but nothing
has been monitized yet)

------
cenriqueortiz
From MSFT perspective -- good move. From LinkedIn perspective, good move as
well -- they have great backing and got a great deal ($). As a user, I'm sad
to see this -- the end of LinkedIn as we know it. I've no interest in MSFT
holding my personal info online CV presence. Perhaps time to move to someplace
else.

------
cs2818
I mostly avoid LinkedIn, then they acquired Lynda.com and began integrating
into (and basically degrading the experience of) a platform I had enjoyed for
many years.

My only concern is what this means for Lynda.com, it would be great if it
could return to its pre-LinkedIn state, but I have a feeling it will somehow
only get worse.

------
kabdib
Too much money. Wayyyy too much.

And if this goes the way of most other very large MS acquisitions, it'll be
utterly wasted.

------
galfarragem
I personally don't like LinkedIn itself but I recognise that it fills an huge
market need. Probably that's why LinkedIn survived to so many bad decisions
and was able to retain users.

Once Microsoft is walking the enterprise path, the acquisition looks like a
logical investment. (logical != profitable)

------
harryh
196/share is roughly what LNKD was trading at before their very bad earnings
report in February. FWIW.

------
denzell
Microsoft just spent 5% of their market cap buying Linkedin.

Does anybody think linkedin is worth one twentieth of Microsoft?

I don't.

~~~
swalsh
I do, it's literally the most valuable network in the world. Facebook is a
friends connection, but LinkedIn is a professional network. Add to that it
also has some amazing insight into the macroeconomy, it's also a great tool
for prediction.

LinkedIn knows the job report before the jobs report is released. Do you know
how much money changes hands after that report is released?

------
iplaw
I foresee a synergistic relationship between the companies. Microsoft is
reorganizing to focus on business cloud solutions, built upon a subscription-
based model. The online Office365 suite is the future. Acquiring LinkedIn will
allow for targeting IT professionals.

That said, I hate LinkedIn.

------
te_chris
ALL CASH. Holy fuck.

~~~
jackweirdy
I bet the wire transfer gets held up for being potentially fraudulent because
it's so big. I'd love to be the call centre worker who picks up that call.

------
msie
I just can't imagine 26 billion dollars. That's beyond any human's
comprehension.

~~~
dredmorbius
You do it through comparisons.

A typical SF Bay Area core house is running close to $1 million these days.

A thousand such homes would be a billion. That's a small town, or a particular
(upscale) San Francisco neighborhood, say, PacHeights or Cole Valley. Home to
about 3,000 - 4,000 people.

Twenty six neighborhoods would be the full LinkedIn value. Call it 26,000
homes in the San Francisco or Peninsula area. Most of Palo Alto, and a
neighboring town, say, Menlo Park, or Redwood City. About 75,000 - 100,000
people. One eighth of San Francisco.

The typical new car is, roughly, $26,000. A thousand of them them is $26
million. A typical freeway lane can see 2,000 cars an hour per lane, or, say
for a large 10-lane freeway, 20,000 cars per hour. If you filled that highway
to capacity for just over 2 days, you'd see $26 billion worth of (new) cars
flowing past.

A 150,000 square foot school at $300/sqft construction costs (via random
DDGing) runs about $45 million. You could build about 570 such schools.

Annual operating expenses of a large high school might run about $30 million.
You could fund ~870 such schools for a year (or one school for 870 years).

Annual petroleum consumption in the US is about 19.6 million barrels per day.
The LinkedIn purchase prices would cover 26 days of $50/bbl oil for the US.

------
harianus
Link to the press release: [http://news.microsoft.com/2016/06/13/microsoft-to-
acquire-li...](http://news.microsoft.com/2016/06/13/microsoft-to-acquire-
linkedin/)

------
dzink
A social network is only as good as the recency of its data. They could
integrate with Bing to show "people you know", and with other tools, it if
people stop updating their profiles, it would be an expensive building
acquisition.

Congratulations to AngelList!

------
colaone
What does this mean for the startup/VC market in the shirt term?

Confidence trending upwards again?

------
syngrog66
Smart for Microsoft and LinkedIn. Yet also means I expect LinkedIn to become
even more distasteful to me, increasing the chance I abandon it. I also see no
paradox with these two opposing observations. :-)

------
exclusiv
Regardless of how you feel, I think it's pretty amazing that even Microsoft
with its vast resources doesn't feel they could compete with LinkedIn if they
invested that same 26B in themselves.

~~~
eva1984
Users, how are u going to gain those many users.

~~~
exclusiv
You could spend 1B on the product and still have 25B for user acquisition.
Microsoft already has an email list larger than LinkedIn.

------
Peroni
The fact is, Microsoft needed a content ecosystem. Buying LinkedIn gives it a
lot of content AND a huge stake in the recruitment game which is a huge and
growing market. The deal makes sense.

~~~
jackweirdy
LinkedIn content is basically the same as Forwards from Grandma with the odd
job announcement interspersed

------
abpavel
The last gasp. Just like Yahoo with tumblr. When a corporate behemoth has a
dream of transformation, they rather just buy that dream than to actually
undergo transformation themselves.

~~~
simonswords82
Yahoo were borderline negligent with that purchase. I suspect the shareholders
and board at Microsoft have a much better idea of what they're planning to do
to monetise Linked In.

~~~
spriggan3
> Yahoo were borderline negligent with that purchase

That's not what most HNers were saying at that time, they were praising Mayer
and her "awesome strategy" of shopping her way into success. Of course it
didn't make sense at all, like that deal makes very little sense at all too.

~~~
simonswords82
Wow - I decided to look up the thread from when the acquisition was announced
and I'm shocked at how positive the news was taken by the HN crowd:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5737185](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5737185)

Looks like we've got an army of Captain Hindsight's here now given I never
hear anybody defend the purchase on HN now it clearly is a flop.

Furthermore Forbes wrote an article on why the acquisition was a bad idea, and
HNers beat it up!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5737400](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5737400)

------
gz5
LinkedIn + Skype + Yammer gives MS the best inter-business or B2B
directory/identity/contact-ibility.

Extremely valuable for a company competing for inter-business collaboration.

Depending how used, of course.

------
astannard
I wonder what they do with the online training provider lynda which is owned
by linkedin? They could use that to push free training for Azure to increase
the reach of its services??

------
daveheq
I don't think anybody's going to like this but Microsoft.

------
lenniez
It seems like a good fit. I getting these .NET developer recruiters with their
"perfect match messages" even though I don't have .NET in my skillset...

------
anonbanker
Time to delete my LinkedIn account, or otherwise corrupt its contents before
MS swallows it all. Microsoft doesn't have the right to my intellectual
property.

------
bgribble
Microsoft exec #1: "It seems that people are hating us less and less these
days. Somehow, the quality of our products and services is perceived as higher
and less hostile to users. That's a problem!"

Microsoft exec #2: "How about we acquire one of the most hated brands out
there? One that makes tech people grind their teeth when it's even mentioned.
How about LinkedIn? That should tarnish our image up till it's right back
where it used to be."

Microsoft exec #1: "There could be a vice-presidency in it for me if I can
make that work! Great idea!"

~~~
SeaDude
Mark my words...

Microsoft should have bought Wordpress. Much cheaper and could replace
Sharepoint which is the most terrible invention on earth.

Why diversify your confusing offerings even further from relevance? LinkedIN?
Come on.

------
kirankn
Somehow feel that MS - Slack acquisition is coming soon

------
exception_e
I hope they do a rewrite/redesign of the frontend.

~~~
paride5745
From Scala to .Net?

~~~
exception_e
No I'm talking about the user interface and user experience.

~~~
paride5745
Jokes aside, I would really like a UI/UX inspired by outlook.com and the other
MS web apps.

------
JumpCrisscross
Not that LinkedIn was stellar in any regard around user privacy, but is the
situation expected to materially degrade under Microsoft?

------
justinholmes
Another nokia.....

------
doctorpangloss
> To be honest, they're probably buying the users, not the product.

What is the value of those users? I'd argue they're basically worthless, and
that this is a disastrously bad acquisition.

Let me propose some concrete measures: How often is the service's single sign-
on login button used in your app? What is the value of the users in your app
sourced from this service? I'd argue this is a great comparison, because if
you can't monetize LinkedIn's users by sourcing them from LinkedIn
traditionally (via ads, clever sourcing hacks, sign in buttons, etc.), you're
certainly not going to monetize them effectively by owning the whole platform.

Where it is available, Facebook can be something like 10% of a free-to-play
mobile game's logins. Facebook ads may be the source for as many as 20% of
your users. Facebook login and Facebook sourced users often have long term
value twice as high as everyone else.

Facebook is very valuable, and it's what made Zynga, Supercell, IAC (Tinder,
Match.com) rich. Spotify might see something as high as 20% logins, and the
diminished amount of account sharing alone must make them a few million
dollars extra. Theoretically, if Facebook had not censored game post spam on
its network, Zynga would still be a huge, rich company. If only Zynga could
have bought Facebook instead of all those little gaming companies...

By comparison, LinkedIn retired their single sign in button. When it was
available, it may have represented less than 1% of logins on a business
service website and app. LinkedIn-sourced users had no different LTV, and
represented less than 2% of all users.

LinkedIn was probably overvalued before Microsoft bought it, radically so.
LinkedIn had no way of legitimately realizing the 20% fees recruiters
enjoy—and even if they did, those fees exist exclusively in the tech world,
exclusively for a narrow part of the workforce, with no credible path to
introducing those fees to the rest of employment recruiting. Considering
LinkedIn's poor track record overall of the value of those users, what is
Microsoft going to do with them instead?

A bunch of companies try this path and fail. For example, GoDaddy is trying
the same thing: Buy companies (you've never heard of) to try to cross-sell
between GoDaddy users and company users. They make acquisitions based on
incorrectly extrapolated LTVs for like 100 accounts they intensively hand
cross-sold pre-acquisition. Then GoDaddy discovers two things a year later:
the actual LTV of their test cohort, which is wildly below their estimate, and
the actual value of the remaining 99,900 of their acquired users, which is
nothing. Even if you bought a zero-revenue startup for $100,000 and your cost
per acquired user (CPA) is $1.00, your LTV is still near $0, so what did you
earn?

I suspect this purchase isn't about users. I suspect major LinkedIn investors
shopped around the company and financial-engineered a sophisticated kickback
for the decision makers on the acquirer's end. Much like when Google purchased
the Google Ventures-backed Nest and enriched a huge number of insiders at
great shareholder expense, the acquisition team at Microsoft was probably
duped into enriching a great deal of insiders too.

------
keypusher
Considering that MS also owns Skype, could we see them combining those two
technologies into some kind of interview platform?

------
datashovel
Last time I was so perplexed with a valuation was back in 2007/2008 when
BlackBerry was trading at over $100 per share.

------
ravivyas
I think the important question is why did linkedIn want to sell itself .. they
were not in as much trouble as Twitter.

------
unfunco
$26.2bn for a list of recruitment agencies. They could have bought the same
data on the dark web for much cheaper...

------
GabrielF00
What is Microsoft hoping to gain from this?

~~~
blahi
Skype for business button on LI profiles. More stickiness for o365.

Data for Dynamics. People assume CRM here, and I tend to agree, but I wouldn't
discount the ERP/supply-chain management software play. Microsoft seems to be
more interested in manufacturing than marketing.

Slide share integration for PowerPoint/O365. More stickiness.

Lynda.com - increasing developer pool for C#/Xamarin, which in turn means more
stickiness for Visual Studio, Azure, Windows and SQL Server, Dynamics
families, SharePoint.

Lynda.com - increasing user base for productivity software.

Lynda.com - future play for HR training both content and technology.

A truckload of content.

------
samfisher83
When they write off the 26 billion in a few years the tax payer will be paying
40% of the purchase price.

~~~
jpadkins
top bracket of corp tax rate is 35%. And taking less money from a corp one
year is not 'tay payer paying for it'. The federal government will take less
money from msft, that is not the tax payer paying for 35% of the purchase
price.

------
applecore
Ouch. Reid Hoffman's 11 percent stake in LinkedIn is going to result in a $1
billion tax bill.

~~~
jaynos
Problems I would love to have.

------
ryanlm
What a surprise this is to hear! I didn't know LinkedIn was in the market to
be acquired.

------
cm2187
Does anyone know why they are paying a 50% premium to closing price? That
seems massive.

------
techaddict009
Current market share price is of 132$ then why did Microsoft pay 90$ high? Any
reason?

~~~
selmat
probably there are some information hidden behind scene.

------
cbanek
If Microsoft buys LinkedIn, I wonder if Facebook will now try to enter that
territory.

~~~
codingmyway
Facebook IS trying to enter that territory. Look up Facebook At Work. This
should help to stifle that.

------
justinzollars
Linkedin is a great buy for Microsoft! Congratulations to my Linkedin friends.
:)

------
njade
From now, when you logout of LinkedIn, you will be redirected to msn.com :P

------
eddd
I'd like to see this valuation - this transaction looks shaky at best.

------
coroutines
Something something private information changing hands in buyouts...

------
max_
A leas they will fix the LinkedIN UI, that thing was psiing me off!!

------
anguswithgusto
Found the best summary of today's events so far... [0]

"SEATTLE — In a last-ditch attempt to connect with consumers, Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella announced on Monday that he had purchased LinkedIn for $26.2
billion in an all-cash deal. Founded in 2003, the social networking giant —
which boasts more than 443 million professionals — makes it possible for users
to “connect” with people they don’t like enough to add on Facebook. 443
million of those “connections” were made early Monday morning, as Microsoft’s
Nadella attempted to fulfill a lifelong dream of having more internet friends
than MySpace Tom. The deal, which had been in the works for months, came
together only days after Microsoft placed a set of similar bids for Yahoo,
Neopets, and Geocities in an effort to buy up the rest of 2005’s hottest web
properties. At $26.2B for 443M friends, Microsoft has answered a long-held
question about the true cost of friendship: the answer? $59.14 USD."

[0] [https://medium.com/@draftedapp/microsoft-ceo-
finds-26-2b-und...](https://medium.com/@draftedapp/microsoft-ceo-
finds-26-2b-under-mattress-buys-website-779bf3bb3e3f)

~~~
natmaster
Geocities is 1998. If you want 2005 try digg.com

------
ElijahLynn
I feel like I should cancel my LinkedIn account now. Hrm..

~~~
mykhal
/me done. finally.

------
_cipher_
Too pricey. They could buy more spambots with less $$.

------
nu2ycombinator
I hope they don't do what they did for Nokia.

------
Kazamai
Good idea to buy LinkedIn, but for $26 BILLION!

Isn't that a million times earnings? Way, way over valued. You could hire a
team and ad agency to make a better LinkedIn for $10 million...

------
bitL
Bye bye LinkedIn!

------
wangii
Is Jeff Weiner photoshopped onto the pic?

------
known
Why buy? Why didn't MS invest?

------
Omnipresent
Every user gets .net endorsements

------
scvalencia
What does that mean to Scala?

~~~
lmm
I'm not aware of Linkedin maintaining any widely-used libraries or anything
like that, so probably very little. (Hadn't they already vocally moved away
from Scala and onto something newer and trendier?)

------
wnevets
Why? Linkedin is kinda awful.

------
jrochkind1
> LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence.

Darnit, I thought there was hope for a second.

------
spriggan3
wow, nice exit for LinkedIn. Microsoft now also owns Lynda.com .

------
ipedrazas
One word: Clippy

~~~
dded
Except this time Clippy's serving ads.

And my documents/presentations/spreadsheets are going to be cross-referenced
with Linked-In? Sounds like a mechanism to put me one click away from
accidentally sending sensitive info to someone working for a competitor.

Nothing about this sounds "delightful" to me. It sounds intrusive and risky.

------
jijji
its not worth 26 million lol

------
perseusprime11
Two turkeys don't make an eagle

------
adamqureshi
PIF Reid Hoffman (Paid in FULL) ;-)

------
steve371
very interesting news to say at least.

------
tinhangliu
impressive

------
Termana
Satya Nadella has made a bold final attempt to stop LinkedIn from spamming him

~~~
vidarh
Won't work. Instead LinkedIn will now infect the OS team, and before you know
it you'll get LinkedIn notifications during boot.

~~~
jfim
2 people want to add you to their professional network on LinkedIn. Abort,
Retry, Fail?

------
elcapitan
"Your career doesn't seem to respond anymore. Do you want to restart it now?"

~~~
brianwawok
* You haven't changed jobs in 3 years, sending out 40 applications for you. You are welcome. - Same team that did Windows 10 autoupdate

~~~
tajen
"Sent your resignation letter" seems like the more appropriate action.

------
ebbv
Between Windows constantly pestering and even trying to trick me to upgrade to
Windows 10 and getting LinkedIn requests from people I've only ever met once
this is truly a match made in hell.

~~~
FLUX-YOU
Windows 10 LinkedIn Edition

Update your LinkedIn profile with shell context menus!

------
elcct
I have a friend request hanging there for the last couple of years and I can't
accept it or reject it :) Maybe Microsoft will fix it...

------
ClassyPuff
Awesome.... Sounds pretty interesting, Microsoft aacquired LinkedIn for
$26B... Wao!!! Heavy amount.... Microsoft is progressing fine. Hope it would
not be just like Nokia.

------
tacos
Someone else must've been interested. Salesforce, maybe?

~~~
tacos
Thanks for the downvotes! Theory confirmed two days after I posted this:

[http://www.recode.net/2016/6/16/11958588/salesforce-also-
mad...](http://www.recode.net/2016/6/16/11958588/salesforce-also-made-a-bid-
for-linkedin-confirms-ceo-benioff-untitled)

------
ivoras
Oh, I can just imagine how the process went at MS:

* Exec A: Social things are Good (coming to the conclusion about 10 years too late)

* Exec B: Shall we create our own Google+?

* Exec C: No, that didn't turn out that well for Google. Let's buy something existing.

* Exec B: Ok, I've Googled a list of top 10 social networking sites for sale, and ordered them by list price, but really we'll need to come up with a strategy first to make a good choice...

* Exec A: Booooring. Let's just buy the cheapest one and be done with it. What's the worst which could happen? Gimme a bonus.

To be honest, they're probably buying the users, not the product.

~~~
nailer
I imagine it was more like:

\- Microsoft has the money

\- LinkedIn is the biggest thing in recruiting (I don't especially like it
either, but it is). I wouldn't personally hire someone via recruiters or
LinkedIn, but I would hire someone via a recomendation from a contact I
maintain on LinkedIn.

\- Microsoft makes business tools

\- There's a bunch of interesting opportunities for intrgating Dynamics,
Yammer, and other MS tools with LinkedIn.

Actually looking forward to MS's UX folk cleaning up LinkedIn.

Edit: Nadella said re: how MS looks at acquisitions
([http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/13/11920306/microsoft-ceo-
sat...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/13/11920306/microsoft-ceo-satya-
nadella-linkedin-memo)) "Is this asset riding secular usage and technology
trends?" \- anyone know what that means?

~~~
krmmalik
>Actually looking forward to MS's UX folk cleaning up LinkedIn.

This. This the only reason im excited about the acquisition. LinkedIn UX is
awful.

What makes me nervous though, is some things could get worse. (skype has gone
downhill ever since the acquisition i feel).

~~~
franciscop
I used to have a normal Skype in Linux. Then migrated to live: type of account
(AKA Outlook). Now I cannot even access my Skype anymore because the
outlook/skype don't sync properly.

I'm slowly migrating away from any Microsoft product. Luckily I closed my
Linkedin account a while back. This is my new Linkedin:
[http://francisco.io/](http://francisco.io/) (my own website).

~~~
lovich
Your rich text editor demo is leading to a 404'd page
[http://francisco.io/editor](http://francisco.io/editor). Your site is very
nice btw

~~~
Sgt_Apone
For what its worth, the Spacehelmet button that points to
[http://spacehelmet.info](http://spacehelmet.info) also 404's. Otherwise a
neat portfolio site.

------
sickbeard
Continuing my theory that Nadella doesn't know what he's doing. I don't think
Microsoft learned anything from buying Yammer.

------
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------
ac2u
Does this mean clippy is going to start offering me jobs?

~~~
gloves
If clippy makes a return, I for one back this move.

------
Artful_Dodger
I'm reading many disparaging comments about this, but I bet if it were
facebook or some other popular company favored by this group that made this
purchase the comments would have a different tone.

~~~
djrjfhrdjcjf
Not really. Both are cancerous blights on the internet.

------
diakritikal
MySpace 2.0

------
Lapsa
good. disliked LinkedIn anyway

------
ProfChronos
Ok, Linkedin is definitely dead :p

------
lloyd-christmas
Sounds like Microsoft is going the Yahoo route.

------
BugsBunnySan
Well, there goes that neighbourhood.

------
gabrielc
I think this will be a new source of memes.

------
gloves
New headline... "Bloated, behind the times corporate buys bloated, barely
functioning social network."

~~~
simonswords82
Man, if you think Microsoft are behind the times then you've not been keeping
up with them. In the software development world Microsoft are about as with
the teams as a company of their size could reasonably be.

~~~
bbcbasic
They are ahead. Asynchronous first class language support is sooooo 2011!

------
downtide
What a waste. What a waste. What a waste.

------
id122015
how many of you use Microsoft OR Linkedin ? Upvote if result is: NO

~~~
ifdefdebug
There seems to be a rather common misconception surfacing on every single
thread about Microsoft, which could be summarized like this:

HN User => !MS user && MS user => !HN user

~~~
Retr0spectrum
Would "Mutually Exclusive" be a better summary?

------
sbardle
LinkedIn is a static and largely useless platform. I have been on it for many
years, there has been no innovation, and I can fully understand why its share
price has taken a beating. Microsoft are desperate and deluded. Who would want
to own Microsoft shares - this company is finished, surely. If this doesn't
indicate a bubble in tech, I don't know what does.

~~~
habitue
Assuming your premises are true (Microsoft is done, LinkedIn is done), this
isn't evidence for a bubble. The stock of these two companies could be priced
perfectly right for their current and potential profits, and yet they might
also be doomed. This might indicate (again, given your premises) that
Microsoft is looking to find new sources of revenue, which would result in
raising their stock price.

By saying this indicates a bubble means you think LinkedIn and Microsoft are
overvalued in some way. Whether or not that's true, this particular move isn't
evidence of being overvalued.

~~~
sbardle
Thanks for your considered response. You could well be right, but for the
moment, I'd put a red-hot poker in my eye if LinkedIn is worth 26 big ones.

Long term, tech is a great place to be, but this is getting silly, surely.

------
Kiro
Of course HN is mocking the deal like we know better without any form of
analysis of the situation.

~~~
skoocda
Isn't that a rather narrow minded reaction?

------
webtechgal
I circulated this to some of my friends and one came back thus:

So now, LinkedIn will turn SinkedIn !!

~~~
webtechgal
I'm kind of new here (long time lurker though), so would someone be kind
enough to let me know why the down-votes on my comment above? That will help
me know better when keep my trap shut... :-)

------
0xmohit
I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn

[https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/714390085647511552](https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/714390085647511552)

------
0xmohit
Coming to an inbox near you: “I'd like to add you to my professional network
on Bing+”

[https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/742391687801147394](https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/742391687801147394)

------
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