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From left: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn.
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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Redmond, Wash., and Mountain View, Calif., USA - June 13, 2016
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)
and LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD)
on Monday 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.
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Courtesy of Microsoft |
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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.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner discuss Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn.
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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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.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner discuss Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn.
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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These innovations have resulted in increased membership, engagement and financial results, specifically:
• 19 percent growth year over year (YOY) to more than 433 million members worldwide
• 9 percent growth YOY to more than 105 million unique visiting members per month
• 49 percent growth YOY to 60 percent mobile usage
• 34 percent growth YOY to more than 45 billion quarterly member page views
• 101 percent growth YOY to more than 7 million active job listings
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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“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.”
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LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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“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.”
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LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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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.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner discuss Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn.
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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“Today is a re-founding moment for LinkedIn. I see incredible opportunity for our members and customers and look forward to supporting this new and combined business,” said Hoffman.
“I fully support this transaction and the Board’s decision to pursue it, and will vote my shares in accordance with their recommendation on it.”
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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Microsoft will finance the transaction primarily through the issuance of new indebtedness.
Upon closing, Microsoft expects LinkedIn’s financials to be reported as part of Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner discuss Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn.
Photo courtesy of Microsoft |
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Microsoft expects the acquisition to have minimal dilution of ~1 percent to non-GAAP earnings per share for the remainder of fiscal year 2017 post-closing and for fiscal year 2018 based on the expected close date, and become accretive to Microsoft’s non-GAAP earnings per share in Microsoft’s fiscal year 2019 or less than two years post-closing.
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Courtesy of Microsoft |
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Non-GAAP includes stock-based compensation expense consistent with Microsoft’s reporting practice, and excludes expected impact of purchase accounting adjustments as well as integration and transaction-related expenses.
In addition, Microsoft also reiterated its intention to complete its existing $40 billion share repurchase authorization by Dec. 31, 2016, the same timeframe as previously committed.
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Courtesy of LinkedIn |
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Microsoft and LinkedIn will host a joint conference call with investors on June 13, 2016, at 8:45 a.m. Pacific Time/11:45 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss this transaction.
The call will be available via webcast at
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor
and will be hosted by Nadella and Weiner, as well as Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith.
The presentation for the call is available on the Microsoft News Center.
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Courtesy of LinkedIn |
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Morgan Stanley is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Microsoft, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal advisor to Microsoft.
Qatalyst Partners and Allen & Company LLC are acting as financial advisors to LinkedIn, while Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation, is acting as legal advisor.
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful and transforms the way companies hire, market, and sell.
Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph.
LinkedIn has more than 400 million members and has offices around the globe.
https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin
Company Information
• LinkedIn's founders are Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant. LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman in 2002.
• The site officially launched on May 5, 2003. At the end of the first month in operation, LinkedIn had a total of 4,500 members in the network.
• The company is publicly held and has a diversified business model with revenues coming from talent solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscription products.
• Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., LinkedIn also has U.S. offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Omaha, San Francisco, Sunnyvale and Washington D.C.
International LinkedIn offices are located in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Beijing, Dubai, Dublin, Graz, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Mumbai, Munich, New Delhi, Paris, Perth, São Paulo, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.
• LinkedIn is currently available in 24 languages: Arabic, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian,
Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai and Turkish.
• LinkedIn has more than 9,700 full-time employees with offices in 30 cities around the world. LinkedIn started off 2012 with about 2,100 full-time employees worldwide, up from around 1,000 at the beginning of 2011 and about 500 at the beginning of 2010.
Worldwide Membership
• LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 433 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
• Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of more than two new members per second.
• There are more than 40 million students and recent college graduates on LinkedIn. They are LinkedIn's fastest-growing demographic.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Video
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner discuss Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-89PWn0QaaY
Source: Microsoft News Center
http://news.microsoft.com
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