Microsoft to acquire Linkedin for $26.2 billion, 3rd largest acquisition in tech history

2. Microsoft has announced
that they will pay $26.2
billion for Linkedin purchase
and this will be third largest
tech acquisition in the
history

3. LinkedIn is the largest
professional social
network by far, with
around 430million
registered users and
100 million visitors to
its site each month

4. •Revenue growth has been
slower than expected, and
rolling out new businesses and
improving existing ones has
proved pricey
• Some analysts have
questioned how much bigger it
can become

5. • In February 2016, LinkedIn’s share price sank by
more than 40% in a day and shedding $11 billion
from its market value
• The firm reported that forecasts of revenues for 2016
were lower than expected
• LinkedIn had also revealed that it made a net loss of
around $165m in 2015

6. • The social-network firm has an enviable team
of data scientists, a commodity coveted by
tech firms
• These design algorithms to find patterns in big
piles of digital information
• LinkedIn will be useful to Microsoft for other
reasons too

7. • The firm gathers detailed information about its users,
including their employment history, education and
whom they know
• These data could prove valuable to Microsoft as it
attempts to build offerings for managing
relationships with customers and to compete with
Salesforce

8. • Salesforce’s current market value is around $55
billion
• LinkedIn is a cheaper substitute. It will also dovetail
with Microsoft’s existing products in Office, its
collection of business applications and services that
includes Word, Excel and Outlook, an e-mail system

9. • The latter might gain in popularity if LinkedIn
keeps users’ details up to date and offers
alerts if a contact moves firms
• Such extra features should, in theory,
encourage companies to buy new cloud
services from Microsoft

10. • Past history of Microsoft has not been good
for Microsoft
• Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion was not
successful
• Microsoft squandered over $6.3 billion on
aQuantive and $7.6 billion on Nokia’s handset
business in 2014

11. • The deal has been welcomed
• It could signal an impending tech buying spree
• In the days after LinkedIn’s purchase, investors
looked around to see which other firms Mr
Nadella and his peers might have their eyes on
• But not every tech firm is lucky enough to
have Mr Nadella coveting it