Microsoft to Buy LinkedIn at $26.2 Billion

Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corporation recently announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion, inclusive of LinkedIn's net cash. LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence. Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction. The transaction is expected to close this calendar year.

LinkedIn is the world's largest and most valuable professional network and continues to build a strong and growing business. Over the past year, the company has launched a new version of its mobile app that has led to increased member engagement; enhanced the LinkedIn newsfeed to deliver better business insights; acquired a leading online learning platform called Lynda.com to enter a new market; and rolled out a new version of its Recruiter product to its enterprise customers.

"The LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business centered on connecting the world's professionals," Nadella said. "Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet. Just as we have changed the way the world connects to opportunity, this relationship with Microsoft, and the combination of their cloud and LinkedIn's network, now gives us a chance to also change the way the world works," Weiner said. "For the last 13 years, we've been uniquely positioned to connect professionals to make them more productive and successful, and I'm looking forward to leading our team through the next chapter of our story."

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both LinkedIn and Microsoft. The deal is expected to close this calendar year and is subject to approval by LinkedIn's shareholders, the satisfaction of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.



Culled from: Microsoft News Center

Why Your Business Needs To Jump On The Social Media Bandwagon

It used to be that a business could rely on their placement in Google to drive customers to their website. Content marketing has always been an important part of search engine ranking and many website owners are in direct competition with one another for page rank through the use of specific keywords.

Times are changing and with the many algorithm changes that Google continues to roll out, old SEO strategies have become a lot less reliable. The need for good and valuable content never changes, but your business needs to listen and respond to customers through more personal avenues and social interaction.

With the advent of social media, everyday people have the opportunity to interact with large corporations and celebrities on a daily basis. Social media has brought the world together and bridged many economic gaps as well as eliminating distance as a barrier to communication.

If your business is not involved with social media, then you have no real way to interact with or to reach your customers. You need to determine which social media networks will be the most effective for your business. It is important to establish profiles on all of the networks that you have identified as being the most relevant to your business.

Many large companies will simply hire marketing experts to take care of the details of the everyday social media updates. If you have a twitter account, you will want to interact with users by tweeting on a regular basis. The tweets that you send out should include recommendations, connections with other business, and links to content that you have posted on your webpage.

A business page on Facebook can invite people to interact with you. You can run contests on your page and create interest by offering items to people on your page. You can post links to free downloads which people would be interested in accessing, in exchange for them joining your mailing list with a valid email address.

Social media can help you to create a social network where people share your content and ask questions or provide you with suggestions of products they would like to see. People tend to share your social information more easily than trying to share web addresses. An analysis of your social network can help you to identify who the “influencers” are within that network. Influencers are people that other people trust and look to for advice. If an influencer makes recommendations about your product through their social media channels, people are more likely to trust your business and purchase from you.

Free webinars are a great way to attract a large amount of people who are specifically interested in your business. You can cross promote your upcoming webinar by providing information about it on your Facebook page, tweeting about it or writing a short summary on Linkedin. Be sure to provide a useful webinar that will get people talking about your business.

The potential of social media is amazing and if you are not currently harnessing the power of it, you are missing out on a lot of potential business. It can help you to get an in depth view of your customer base, what they are looking for and how they talk about your business. Social media creates brand awareness and can skyrocket your business, but only if you know how to leverage it properly.