Yes, LinkedIn is connected to Microsoft. In June 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in an all-cash transaction, making it Microsoft’s largest acquisition to date.
The History of LinkedIn
LinkedIn was founded in December 2002 by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillant. The company officially launched on May 5, 2003 as one of the first social networks focused specifically on business connections and career networking.
In its early years, LinkedIn focused on growing its membership base and expanding internationally. Some key milestones included:
- 2004 – LinkedIn reaches 1 million members
- 2005 – Launches in Australia, India, and Singapore
- 2006 – Reaches 5 million members
- 2007 – Launches in France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands
- 2008 – Reaches 20 million members and launches in China
LinkedIn first became profitable in March 2006 and continued growing steadily, reaching 100 million members by March 2011. The company had its initial public offering (IPO) in May 2011, valuing LinkedIn at over $4 billion.
In the following years, LinkedIn focused on enhancing its mobile presence, releasing apps across all major platforms. It also acquired a number of companies to expand its offerings, including slideshare in 2012 and Lynda.com in 2015.
By 2016 when it was acquired by Microsoft, LinkedIn had grown to over 400 million members worldwide. It had established itself as the world’s largest professional network and an invaluable platform for recruitment, professional networking, and content publishing.
Microsoft’s Acquisition of LinkedIn
Rumors of Microsoft’s interest in acquiring LinkedIn surfaced in early 2016. After several months of negotiations, the deal was officially announced on June 13, 2016. Microsoft paid $26.2 billion in cash for LinkedIn, representing a 50% premium over LinkedIn’s share price at the time.
The acquisition provided several strategic advantages for Microsoft:
- Gained access to LinkedIn’s 433 million members for Microsoft’s cloud and productivity services like Office 365 and Dynamics
- Expanded Microsoft’s reach in the highly lucrative corporate social networking space
- Integrated LinkedIn’s extensive data, advertising capabilities, and recruitment tools into Microsoft’s product portfolio
- Bolstered the ability to provide actionable business insights by combining data from LinkedIn and Microsoft’s platforms
For LinkedIn, the purchase allowed the company to leverage Microsoft’s resources and cloud infrastructure to accelerate its growth. Microsoft also aimed to keep LinkedIn’s culture and brand intact under its ownership.
LinkedIn’s Integration with Microsoft
Since the acquisition closed in December 2016, Microsoft has been working to integrate LinkedIn across its platforms and services. Some examples include:
- Integrating LinkedIn profile data into Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint
- Enabling LinkedIn notifications and interactions through Windows 10
- Combining insights from LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Adding LinkedIn Learning courses to Office 365
- Launching Microsoft Talent Solutions for talent acquisition
Microsoft also redesigned LinkedIn’s desktop experience in 2017 to match Microsoft’s design ethos. More deep integrations are expected across Office 365, Dynamics 365, Teams, and other Microsoft workplace solutions.
LinkedIn operates as an independent subsidiary under Microsoft, with LinkedIn founder Jeff Weiner remaining as CEO. However, Microsoft has made LinkedIn a core pillar of its strategy along with Office 365, Windows, and Azure.
Microsoft and LinkedIn’s Competitive Advantages
The Microsoft-LinkedIn deal created a powerful combination when looking at Microsoft’s primary competitors – Google and Facebook:
Microsoft | |||
---|---|---|---|
Cloud Services | Azure | Google Cloud | Facebook Platform |
Productivity Software | Office 365 | G Suite | – |
Social Media Platform | Google+* | ||
Professional Networking | – | – | |
Recruitment Tools | LinkedIn Talent Solutions | – | – |
*Google+ was shut down in 2019
With LinkedIn under its umbrella along with Office 365 and Dynamics 365, Microsoft has an edge over its rivals when it comes to enterprise software and services. The addition of LinkedIn gives Microsoft a unique professional networking platform and extensive data for business insights.
LinkedIn’s Performance Since Acquisition
Under Microsoft’s ownership, LinkedIn has continued growing its user base while expanding its offerings:
- Membership increased from 433 million at acquisition to over 675 million members as of October 2019
- Launched native video and online learning platform LinkedIn Learning in 2017
- Grew its content publishing platform to over 100,000 active publishers
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator customers increased to over 75,000 accounts
- Acquired Glint Inc. in 2018 to add capabilities for assessing and improving employee engagement and retention
LinkedIn generates revenue through 3 main business lines:
- Talent Solutions – recruitment and talent acquisition tools for corporate HR departments and recruiters
- Marketing Solutions – advertising to LinkedIn members based on professional data and interests
- Premium Subscriptions – paid additional features for LinkedIn members
LinkedIn’s revenue has grown consistently each year since the Microsoft acquisition:
Fiscal Year | Revenue (in billions) |
---|---|
2017 | $3.57 |
2018 | $5.30 |
2019 | $6.75 |
2020 | $8.24 |
This growth has been driven by increased membership, more corporate services customers, better monetization, and expanding LinkedIn’s overall product portfolio.
Potential Changes to LinkedIn Under Microsoft
While LinkedIn operates independently today, Microsoft could aim to further integrate LinkedIn across its family of products. Potential changes include:
- Tighter Office 365 integration with LinkedIn for profiles, contacts, newsfeeds, and notifications
- Leveraging LinkedIn’s professional data in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for deeper CRM insights
- Offering bundled packages across Office 365, Dynamics 365, and LinkedIn
- More partnerships between LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft products
- Creating a unified social graph across LinkedIn, Outlook, Skype, and Xbox
- Expanding LinkedIn Recruiter and Talent Solutions capabilities
However, Microsoft also wants to preserve LinkedIn’s brand independence and prevent alienating other technology partners. Major changes to LinkedIn’s current experience will likely be gradual.
Conclusion
The acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016 gave Microsoft a commanding presence in the enterprise social networking space while providing cross-selling opportunities across its stack. Integration efforts since then have focused on surfacing LinkedIn’s capabilities in Microsoft’s ecosystem.
LinkedIn has continued its steady growth under Microsoft’s ownership, reaching nearly 700 million members. However, Microsoft has the potential to more aggressively blend LinkedIn into its core productivity tools and business applications like Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Teams.
While LinkedIn will likely remain operationally independent, its deep data and professional tools can provide Microsoft with an advantage in sectors like business software, cloud services, and talent management. The long-term integration possibilities are extensive as Microsoft aims to embedded LinkedIn across its platforms.