Microsoft will buy LinkedIn for $196 per share, or about $26.2 billion. The respective companies' boards are alleged to have unanimously approved the sale. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner will keep his title and report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. It is claimed that LinkedIn will continue to operate as an independent brand.
Reuters, CNBC, USA Today, WSJ, NYT.
It's quick and easy to delete your Linked-In account in ten steps.
Microsoft said Monday it was buying the professional social network LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash, a move that helps refocus the US tech giant around cloud computing and services.
With its biggest-ever acquisition and one of the largest in the tech sector, Microsoft takes a big step into the world of social networking and adds a new tool for its efforts to boost services for business.
"This deal brings together the world's leading professional cloud with the world's leading professional network," Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said in a statement. "It's clear to me that the LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business and an impressive network of more than 433 million professionals."
Prediction: Inaugural message to LinkedIn members will be, "Have you upgraded to Windows 10 yet?"
Related Stories
LinkedIn CEO: Company Open To Original Shows, Streaming NFL
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner says they are not pivoting to video as several social media and news media outlets have recently done, but the company is open to buying and developing original shows.
[...] He noted that shows similar to ABC's "Shark Tank" could potentially do very well with its business and networking minded users.
[...] Weiner also expressed interest in pursuing deals with professional sports leagues such as the NFL or NBA.
Also at GeekWire and MSPoweruser.
Previously: Microsoft to Buy LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion in Cash
LinkedIn Apologizes for Attempted Privacy Breach
LinkedIn Cannot Prevent Access to Public Profiles
Microsoft is integrating LinkedIn with Word:
Writing and updating your résumé is a task that few of us enjoy. Microsoft is hoping to make it a little less painful with a new feature coming to Word called Resume Assistant.
Resume Assistant will detect that you're writing a résumé and offer insights and suggestions culled from LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a vast repository of both résumés and job openings and lets you see how other people describe their skillsets and which skills employers are looking for.
The feature will also show job openings that are suitable for your résumé directly within Word, putting résumé writers directly in contact with recruiters.
The feature is now available to a select few Office 365 subscribers:
Resume Assistant is available today to Office 365 subscribers as part of the Insiders program and those subscribers must have the latest version of Word on Windows. It will be generally available to Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers "in the coming months." Resume Assistant will be available in all Office 365 commercial and consumer plans, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed.
Error: No jobs were found to be suitable based on your résumé. You are overqualified and too old.
How to Land a Dream Job With Microsoft Resume Assistant
Step 1: Lie.
Related: Microsoft to Buy LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion in Cash
LinkedIn Introduces "Open Candidates" Feature to Help Employees Look for a Better Job
LinkedIn Apologizes for Attempted Privacy Breach
LinkedIn Mulls Producing Videos; May Buy Rights From Sports Leagues
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @07:04PM
It's quick and easy to delete your Linked-In account in ten steps.
Yeah, lets delete one of the very few tools many people have to get a job. Brilliant!
I can 'kinda' see what is in it for MS. But not much. For LinkedIn I see no upside to this move other than a cash out for the investors. Seems on the face of it a bad deal for both ends.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday June 13 2016, @07:09PM
All that data should join up quite nicely with all of their 'telemetry' data from Windows.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stretch611 on Monday June 13 2016, @07:18PM
Fortunately, some of us don't give any telemetry data to Microsoft. I'm free as a bird... or penguin as the case may be.
Though, I admit in the future it will be harder to stay away from all Microsoft products... with their bankroll I expect the buying spree to continue. They bought the company that makes my Android Keyboard a few months ago... SwiftKey. And that is one app that I know sends back telemetry data.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Monday June 13 2016, @07:41PM
They day they announce that sale, I dumped that keyboard from all my devices, wrote a nasty-gram to swithkey, I had been a beta tester for them all along.
Swiftkey promised me none of my predictive text mining would be shared with anyone else. Then they snuck in a little "if swiftkey is acquired" clause a few months before the sale. I wrote them a nastygram when that happened. Then they sold out to Microsoft, lock stock and accumulated user material.
App Deleted. The stock keyboard that came on my HTC has pretty much the same predicition capabilities, same touch and/or swiping, and is equally configurable.
In similar news Semantic (yeah the virus scanner people) purchased Blue Coat Systems, a surveillance company. What could Possibly Go Wrong with that?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Monday June 13 2016, @07:58PM
So you knew they were in for-sale mode for a few months and you kept using the app until they actually sold? Were you expecting a cut as a beta tester?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 13 2016, @08:32PM
I suspected. Not knew. I had noticed the same pattern when DropCam added that language, but was surprised when the sale went through to Google.
I admit I as lazy in getting off of Swiftkey ahead of the sale, not knowing in advance who the buyer was, or if there was indeed a sale in the offing.
But then I never gave permission for swiftkey to scan my emails or text messages to build a private dictionary, and forced it built it in real time.
So all they had was basically what I typed directly into that app, which they claimed did all its work right on the phone. (I tended to believe this, because it worked in airplane mode). Still I syspect there was some copying of this information to their servers.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Monday June 13 2016, @08:58PM
It should be explicitly against the law to be able to acquire and integrate data via buying up a company. I'm betting that if tested in court by someone with enough money for the lawyers, it really already is and companies would have to ask for explicit consent.
The way things are going with these huge companies buying everything up, they're going to be impossible to avoid.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by wisnoskij on Monday June 13 2016, @07:41PM
"For LinkedIn I see no upside to this move other than a cash out for the investors."
Ya, the investors are obviously primarily worried about the quality of LI, and don't care one whit about making profits....
Arguably this is many many many times more money than the company is worth, as news about them most often include phrases like "net losses". And at best they make very low triple digit millions per year, which means it would take hundreds of years to make back this investment. For this move to make sense, MS would need to be certain it could take declining profits and turn them into profits going up 100000%.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @10:42PM
Or maybe MS wants to open a similar competing service and wishes to kill Linkedin as a competitor
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 13 2016, @07:57PM
one of the very few tools many people have to get a job
I never counted a linkedin reference as meaningful when hiring. In fact I viewed it as an indication of job hopping, and by and large it proved true.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday June 14 2016, @11:11AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Wednesday June 15 2016, @12:18AM
I get an average of 4 recruiter calls/mails every week from LinkedIn. All noise.
The junior recruiters use it, and seek on keywords.
Senior recruiters have built relationships, not electronic social networks.
They know how to find me.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @08:01PM
To begin with, Linkedln was always a very scummy company that constantly got hacked and abused personal data to advertise. That Microsoft is taking control of it is only fitting.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 13 2016, @08:18PM
For LinkedIn I see no upside to this move other than a cash out for the investors.
For investors, getting bought out by Microsoft with cash near their all time high is the business equivalent of walking through the Pearly Gates. There is no better outcome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @08:30PM
Oh I get that... I just see no upside on the business end for either of them. MS does not get a lot of money out of it and ends up paying a premium. The people left behind in LI end up with an uncertain set of 'do I stay or jump or get replaced' feeling nuking moral there.
It is a deal that is only good for the investors in LI. Thats it. I see little benefit for MS its customers, or LIs 'customers', MS investors, MS employees, or LI employees. There is pretty much only investment banker upside.
It is one of the reasons I divested myself of MS stock. They keep buying companies that do not fit their core model of software. They are not a service or hardware company. Yet they keep trying to be and very rarely get it right.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday June 13 2016, @08:48PM
I'd look to the Nokia deal, and probably see about jumping.
.
.
Seriously.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by RedIsNotGreen on Tuesday June 14 2016, @12:00PM
I was on LinkedIn for at least 5 years, and didn't get a single job, not even a lead from it. I guess it helps your credibility or "social proof" to have a well-filled in profile. But after the security breaches, the apps that steal user information, after the annoying and misleading website design, I decided that enough is enough. I downloaded all my CSV data dumps and then deleted my account. I don't miss it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @07:16PM
I am not a fan of either company. If Microsoft treats LinkedIn like it did Nokia then I will have one less company to dislike.
Microsoft is trying to buy their way in whatever portion of semi-social media LinkedIn occupies. With no real experience in this market I can assume the "Extinguish" portion of EEE will arrive faster than you can say "my new Nokia phone makes me sad, too" once you find someone else with one.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @07:28PM
So it's a win/win: they drag each other down.
Let's hope Oracle buys Microsoft who then buys SCO, and the big bloated snake chokes on itself.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday June 13 2016, @07:33PM
I'm not willing to take the risk that it will fail to :P
Pretty sure Oracle or Microsoft acquiring the other would unleash C'thulhu anyway.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Monday June 13 2016, @07:43PM
Microsoft is trying to buy their way in whatever portion of semi-social media LinkedIn occupies.
Facebook for MBAs?
(And don't you just hate it when you check the queue, and don't see an important breaking story, so you submit a rather rushed and lame submission, only to see the story top of the front page immediately after you submitted? Gosh, I hate that.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @07:17PM
I use LinkedIn and find it useful. I pray they won't get the Nokia treatment.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @09:40PM
I pray that they do. LinkedIn would gain access to people's email accounts. create shadow profiles of every email, and spam everyone. They'd also send you fake friend requests. Faked "Person X wants to connect with you. Click here to accept." When you click that they'd send a real connect request to person X and X would believe you want to connect with them. Neither party realizing that LinkedIn was the one first asking for the connection.
In their goal of ever increasing profits they became very corrupt. Their initial idea was fine, but like so many other companies, they quickly turn bad.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @07:19PM
I got tired of the various nag emails and thought it might be a good idea to have a profile anyway just because that is a large part of the modern job search. I never got around to properly filling it out, and now I'm glad I didn't. I expected LI to sell data, in fact that was a part of their service! However, MS I do not trust in the slightest and don't even want to know how they plan to utilize the massive amount of data.
$26 billion seems cheap for what amounts to a database on a huge chunk of the highly educated people on the PLANET! We toss our data into the net so easily, thinking that we are so insignificant that nothing will happen. The larger picture is much more dangerous, and becomes more of an aggregate threat to society. However, people rarely look past their own noses and large picture threats are so nebulous that few take them seriously.
The useless philosophical debate about whether we live in a simulation is quickly becoming a moot point, we are creating our own matrix right here and now. People's real lives are now intertwined with their digital ones
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 13 2016, @07:30PM
That is true. But that total access to information makes the NSA and other criminals lazy. They think they have a full picture of what the world's people are doing, and what they're up to. Except, the people smart enough to be on LinkedIn and other such networks are also smart enough to know that if they don't want to be overheard, then they ought not to discuss it at all in digital or electronic form.
Me, I now know to delete my profile from LinkedIn and to send all communications from them to /dev/null.
It will not be long before the NSA, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the other spies get what's coming to them.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Monday June 13 2016, @07:47PM
Except, the people smart enough to be on LinkedIn ...
See that right there is an indication you've already drunk the koolaid.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Tuesday June 14 2016, @03:00PM
Then there are the people who are smart enough to know that it's not smart to appear to be smart enough to not be on linked in, so i can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Monday June 13 2016, @07:32PM
Linked-In is another of those things I refused to join, mostly because of their business practices. So I don't have to follow the 10 steps program of linkedin-aholics to delete my account.
The thing is, I'd probably be MORE likely to join when it is in Microsoft's hands than as the stand-alone company with dodgy practices that it has been todate. References that include Linked-in membership always left me with an uneasy feeling of distrust, that the person was a job hopping resume padder. Getting invitations to join Linked-in masquerading as being from casual business acquaintances or customers always gave me the creeps. These guys don't know enough not to share their email address-book with a data miner!??!
Not that I trust Microsoft mind you. Its just that they can be predicted to violate your privacy in more predictable ways, and they are big enough to attract the attention of the courts for some of their shenanigans. I won't be rushing to join MS-LinkedIn, but I might at least give them a look.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by korger on Monday June 13 2016, @09:29PM
Not that I trust Microsoft mind you. Its just that they can be predicted to violate your privacy in more predictable ways, and they are big enough to attract the attention of the courts for some of their shenanigans.
They are also big enough to simply refuse to pay up when the court orders it (see the never-ending European court cases), or just bribe their way out of it (like they did during the browser wars). The bigger Microsoft gets, the less the laws will apply to it. Already now, if MS decides not to comply with a court order, what can we do? Ban its products? The judge ordering that decision will be the first one to oppose that, since I've never seen anyone in business or law who would use anything else than MS Office.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 14 2016, @01:00AM
I never joined because I hate the name. At first I thought it was linkedLn (without the capital) thinking it was short for "linked line" which just gave me a WTF moment. Then I figured out it was "linked in" which just sounds stupid. Anyway, it seems like Geocities just reinvented over and over and over and ....
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday June 14 2016, @05:51AM
I am with you about considering references to Linked In to be an indication of a job-hopper.
I have anecdotal data on two people I know who are what I consider "Techno-whores". They promise the moon. Their skills are in personal grooming and salesmanship. They do not know which end of a screwdriver does what. They always have their hand outstretched for a shake, and flourish business cards in an instant. They go from job to job as a bee goes from flower to flower, staying long enough to get the pollen, then move on. Gotta admit, their income is at least an order of magnitude above mine. Nor do I believe I could compete with them if a non-technical interviewer was calling the shots.
However, I would not want them to as much as help me trim trees - even if they did it for free. I would not trust them anywhere near a power tool or my personal records. Hell, they can't even drive safely... can't get them off the damn phone! probably lining up their next score on my dime.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 13 2016, @07:41PM
I've been a passive member of LinkedIn for 15 years. They have never shown any utility. It's a spam factory. Now that they want to push MS products, as they will, I have no interest in being associated with them anymore, even passively.
I deleted my account immediately on this news. I don't expect them to honor it. I expect to get endless emails from MS for the next decade urging me to sign up for MS crap. But they must at least hear that there are those who will not have anything to do with them because of MS.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 13 2016, @07:44PM
I never joined, and I still get the endless emails. So good luck with your running away. You can't hide as long as there are assholes who shares their addressbook with LinkedIn.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 13 2016, @07:54PM
Of course. I never joined several social networks either but still get spam from them. I didn't tell them my birthday but still get email from them on that day.
So many believe that it's pointless to speak up unless your objection carries the day. It most often doesn't. But speaking up always matters, most of all to you: 'my life you may take, my integrity never.'
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday June 14 2016, @02:28PM
Yeah that's the extra ugly side of LinkedIn. Even if you have never joined, former coworkers will type in your name and email and what company you worked for in a desperate attempt to get in touch with you and beg for work.
If a former coworker can't contact me, there is usually a reason for it.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 13 2016, @09:26PM
> I expect to get endless emails from MS for the next decade urging me to sign up for MS crap.
That problem will solve itself when they finally put Yahoo to rest.
I need to look into the costs of hosting a mail server for the whole extended family, so datamining only happens at the other end.
But I can't blame MS for buying a big professional database, and a "serious" social network.
Had MS coded the best social network in the multiverse, with the best feature everyone wants, and made it mandatory when using Windows, it would still be empty because "MS is not cool". To compete with the other guys, they wanted social, and they needed "sticky" social (not "flash in the pan teen app of the week"). The buy makes sense, even if the amount is pretty high.
I take solace in thinking that MS buying into Social Media likely marks the end of that bubble.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 14 2016, @12:52PM
My paranoia says you would want to run a mail server on a machine you physically control, or it's probably gonna be mined by whoever does physically control the machine. Trouble is in 2016 configuring, securing, and maintaining an email server is still a ridiculous pain in the ass when there are a million other things to do in the day.
You are probably right about MS killing social media. Thank god. Maybe people will actually talk to each other again.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @09:59PM
Have had a minimal account on LinkedIn for years, but never gave them more than the bare minimum info. Never accepted any of the endorsement crap either, although people I know constantly try to endorse me.
About the only useful bit has been looking up people that I might be doing business with--and that's usually available elsewhere--but I will admit that LinkedIn made this basic level searching very easy.
Will have to think about deleting my account.
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Monday June 13 2016, @07:49PM
Whatever you think about MS or LI, the business model LI has developed amounts to recruiters paying them to do searches.
Recruiters are people who can't get any other job. (Anyone who could get another job would.) They're about the McDonald's workers of the white-collar world. But they spend OPM which they get from their clients. They're both lazy and stupid, so they pay LinkedIn for keyword searches. (Recruiters are so dumb that I think each one believes they came up with the idea of trolling LinkedIn. I really do. Even ones who work for the same company apparently never think someone might have already tried this idea.) For whatever reason, companies go through recruiters, probably because of CYA legal reasons, and the money never dries up. That's a better business model than anyone else has come up with for social media or the Internet, and I give LI all the credit in the world for developing it. When you find a cash cow like that, you milk it.
MS is trading a few million now for a perpetual revenue stream. It's not a bad purchase. I guess they know how they got the $26B figure, but it seems a little high to me, but I'm sure MS gets a huge writeoff for blowing that much cash.
All this stuff about integrating LinkedIn with Office subscriptions - whatever. Since I don't use Office 365, I don't care. I doubt anyone will care.
The worst thing LI has done recently is buy the low-quality Lynda training video company. I expect it to be sold off in 10... 9... 8... MS isn't going to keep this dog.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Monday June 13 2016, @08:18PM
Recruiters are addicted to applicant tracking systems to the point that they need simpler tools like LinkIn's In Apply, Indeed's Apply Now or similar. The ATSes often take more time than they're worth for applicants, and distil everyone down to a few checkmarks. Thus great candidates are missed because they're missing one "key" criteria and are often never looked at even if the initial batch of candidates does not work out. Then ignoring the systemic problem and still not actually reviewing resumes, these recruiters get their companies to pay $400 per posting (with a 10 post minimum) so more people will apply because they can avoid the pointless ATSes. So while LinkedIn has its flaws, it wouldn't be so big if it weren't for Oracle Taleo and other garbageware putting up hurdles for applicants.
Yet even with all these tracking systems, I have only once been recalled back more than a year later for a job, so being "on file" is worthless.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tibman on Monday June 13 2016, @07:59PM
Headhunters have used it to place many developers. They really don't care who owns linkedin as long as the owners don't put up any obstacles. If MS drives developers away to other services then that is where the headhunters will go, as they have no loyalty to the platform. They'll use every platform they can.
My guess is MS will tie certifications into the resume' and use that to verify skills. Highlighting those verified skills over all others. Something like that anyways.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @08:32PM
Yep. We also use Microsoft Certifications to screen out crap candidates.
(Score: 2) by dltaylor on Monday June 13 2016, @09:38PM
The ones that have them are crap?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 13 2016, @09:01PM
My guess is MS will tie certifications into the resume' and use that to verify skills. Highlighting those verified skills over all others. Something like that anyways.
I believe you have something there. I'll expand your idea with a brilliant extension of the licensing revenue model... if you claim to be an IT dude having anything tangentially to do with MS products, your resume will be "disappeared" if you or your employer are not paying up the MSDN fees.
Or they'll be a "special deal" for every unemployed IT professional, here have access to learn MS stuff.
Ditto on the employer side, feel free to torrent windows 10 or WTF, just realize that when you keyword search for future employees your registration and licensing account will directly impact the quality of the candidates you "find" on LI. Must have X windows server licenses purchased to search for BSCS grads, X+Y windows server licenses to search for MSCS grads, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13 2016, @08:09PM
Of course, Microsoft is getting a captive user base to pitch their products to, but they already had that with their other products.
I think this is a diversification play (what Peter Lynch of Fidelity Investments once called "diworseification"). MS realizes that the Windows and Office cash cows won't last forever, so at least they'll be able to claim a premier Internet franchise that isn't a glorified hangout for teens and millenials.
(Score: 1) by muppet on Monday June 13 2016, @10:30PM
Hopefully they can clean it up a bit, it's a mess at the moment. But it is a good way to keep in touch with old workmates, find out what's happening in the industry etc.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Subsentient on Tuesday June 14 2016, @12:43AM
Just deleted it today. I don't trust LinkedIn as it is, and I refuse to trust Microsoft after they've tried to lock out OSes with secure boot (and with Win 10 making disable switch optional), inserted function calls to their spyware in code produced by Visual Studio, and oh so much more over such a long time scale.
Ironically, I had 'forgiven' Microsoft mostly and had a neutral view about a year ago. Then they've been pulling all this shit lately. Fry in hell, MS.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Tuesday June 14 2016, @03:39AM
The editor added cash to the title. It was not in the original submission because, despite many articles throwing the word around, no evidence was provide for use of cash.
We lack details for this case but similar cases in the past used stock trades, which are funny money not cash. If it is cash, since M$ keeps most of its off-shore and bringing it back home to make the purchase is going to be interesting.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by gidds on Tuesday June 14 2016, @02:26PM
...if not his responsibilities, his job security, his reputation, his self-respect, or his soul.
Still it shows that MS does have an alternative to embrace, extend, extinguish. This plan is even shorter: buy (<- you are here), extinguish.
[sig redacted]