Since the time the announcement of Microsoft’s acquisition of Linkedin for a whopping $26.2 Billion was made public, there has been a lot of discussion as who stands to win with this deal.
For the moment, let’s ignore who wins or loses with is arrangement and focus upon few of the interesting facts worth knowing. Here it goes.
- The deal is bit curious because Microsoft is shelling out $196 per share! And is this is an all-cash transaction!
- This is one of the biggest deals in the recent times and definitely the biggest for Satya Nadella since he took over as CEO of Microsoft.Microsoft had earlier paid $8.5bn to acquire Skype in the year 2011.
- This is one of the major shifts in Microsoft's Business model which was up until now relied only on Software related products.
- As of now there is no major change the team and Jeff Weiner will continue to head Linkedin and will be reporting to Satya Nedella
- The deal has been approved by both the boards of Linkedin and Microsoft and is expected to be completed by the end of 2016
- Financial advisors to LinkedIn are Qatalyst Partners and Allen & Company LLC and Microsoft has taken the financial advice of Morgan Stanley.
- Microsoft plans to integrate the Linkedin's Data into Cortana, the Microsoft's version of Apple Siri and Google talk.
Apart from the above, it’s also worth noting that 10% of Linkedin users are from India. Whether the users stand to gain with this deal is a million dollar question that’s worth watching for.
