Microsoft surprised everyone by announcing that they had agreed to buy LinkedIn.
The purchase cost of £18bn represents the largest takeover of a social media platform, eclipsing the deal that Facebook did for Snapchat back in 2014.
Microsoft agreed to pay double the pre-sale share value to secure the purchase, showing how keen Microsoft are to get involved in this space.
Microsoft has wanted to get involved in social media for a long time and choosing LinkedIn seems a natural choice. The cost was reflecting the dominance that LinkedIn has in the professional sphere of social media and the data opportunities this creates across their entire business.
How Will It Affect Businesses?
Regular users of LinkedIn like us are naturally inquisitive when there is a change that may cause a seismic shift in a popular social media platform. Some businesses in our sector are built entirely on helping businesses and professionals use the platform successfully, so they will have the most staked on how LinkedIn is affected.
Initially, it appears Microsoft are not looking to rock the boat, with existing boss Jeff Weiner staying in charge of the company.
Only time will tell how this takeover affects the 15 million LinkedIn users based in the UK, but as a user of the platform here are a few things we would love to see and a few we would not.
Five Things We Would Like To See
- Easier mechanics for engaging with new connections or those that we have not spoken to for some time to allow for easier engagement
- A way to sort business and non-business related posts
- A commitment to features that keep LinkedIn business focussed
- More work centred features such as being able to schedule/make calls to contacts within LinkedIn
- Better ways to promote content and business pages
Two Things We Do Not Want To See
- LinkedIn to become more like Facebook
- Over promotion or integrations of solely Microsoft products/services