Microsoft is buying LinkedIn for $26 billion

Microsoft has announced this morning that it will be acquiring LinkedIn in a deal worth $26.2 billion. 

Day-to-day running of LinkedIn will remain largely unchanged, with the current CEO Jeff Weiner staying in charge and reporting directly to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Both Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Jeff Weiner full supported the deal along with the entire Board of Directors.

The deal is expected to close officially at the end of this calendar year. That means that by January 2017, LinkedIn will officially be Microsoft property. 

“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.”

It’s clear the two companies are seeing this as an ideal partnership. The language is very much based around Microsoft as the “World’s Leading Professional Cloud” partnering with the “World’s Leading Professional Network”. But exactly what this means for the long term future of LinkedIn is yet to be seen. 

In the past, we’ve seen deals like Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia go south after just a few years, while its purchase of Sunrise (a previously popular calendar app) saw the company swallow up the best features and kill the app. In the short term, however, LinkedIn will keep its own brand and independence and continue running as it is now.