LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that has become one of the most popular social media sites for professionals to connect, network, and find job opportunities. The company's brand story is as follows:
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillant. The company started as a simple platform to connect professionals and share job opportunities but has since grown to help professionals advance their careers. LinkedIn has become an essential tool for job seekers, recruiters, and businesses.
June 2016
Microsoft bought LinkedIn
Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. The two companies confirmed the giant purchase with their statements.
US-based Microsoft has made one of the biggest acquisitions in the technology world.
Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. He is currently a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners and a co-founder of Inflection AI.
Microsoft, which incorporated LinkedIn, the career site that allows business people to communicate with others, paid $26.2 billion (approximately 75 billion TL) for this acquisition.
Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, who announced the acquisition with a message published on the official blog page, stated that both LinkedIn and Microsoft would be positively affected by this acquisition.
Founded by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillant in Mountain View, California in 2002, LinkedIn reached 400 million users in 2016, with 106 million active.
"Microsoft and LinkedIn are joining forces," LinkedIn said in a statement on Twitter.
A brief history of LinkedIn
Established on December 28, 2002, to create a professional business network
LinkedIn's website was launched on May 5, 2003
In August 2003, the German company Xing was founded for the same purpose, that is, an early-stage competition began.
In 2005, he focused on product development and detailed his services.
Reached 10 million members in 2006
With the investment it received in 2010, it reached a valuation of 2 billion dollars
Opened a branch in Dublin, Ireland in 2010
Opened to the stock market in 2011
Acquired presentation-sharing platform SlideShare for $119 million in 2012
Account passwords of 6.5 million users were seized by hackers in 2012
Acquired news app Pulse in 2013
Acquired e-learning platform lynda.com for $1.5 billion in 2015
Acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 billion in 2016
Reid Hoffman
Hoffman, who set his mind to be in the software world while studying philosophy at Oxford, worked at Apple and Fujitsu companies for his career. Afterward, he established the social media platform “SocialNet” with the information he gained. Unsatisfied with his job, Hoffman exchanged ideas with Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel to develop the venture and reach more people. After this exchange of ideas, he did not refuse the offer to work at Paypal, and he had the opportunity to develop himself and his venture further.
The discoveries he made in Paypal before founding LinkedIn gave Reid Hoffman a lot. Especially at that time, the widespread use of the internet and the transformation that people could go through was Hoffman's starting point. He supported the use and development of LinkedIn with the support of Sequa Capital. As a result of this support, the site has become accessible to many people. There were also different factors in LinkedIn being so popular and used by many companies. There was no other company operating like LinkedIn, the social media platform that was a first in its field. The fact that LinkedIn is a new platform and prioritizes professional networks has made LinkedIn loved and used in a short time.
Reid Hoffman served as a coordinator at LinkedIn for his first four years. He became the general manager and chairman of LinkedIn in 2009. Continuing to attach importance to investment after this assignment, Hoffman had different points that he paid particular attention to during the investment. Services provided to consumers, corporate software, online marketing, internet usage, consumer access to the internet, development of payment methods, and social networks are among the focal points of Reid Hoffman.
Afterward, Reid Hoffman started to write books on entrepreneurship, and his success in this field also multiplied, and the books he wrote managed to enter the bestseller list in a short time. He has also produced a lot of content for his own site LinkedIn and the Washington Post.