The world of mergers and acquisitions is often full of surprises. Thursday brought a surprise in the realm of social media. LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) announced the acquisition of a website and service called Lynda.com.
LinkedIn is in a different area of social media compared to the likes of Facebook or Twitter. What differentiates LinkedIn from these others is that it is social media for professionals, and a fair amount of these professionals use the site not only to network but also to find jobs and develop technical skills. LinkedIn is now making it easier to develop technical skills with its most recent acquisition.
LinkedIn announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Lynda.com in a cash-and-stock transaction. The deal is valued at $1.5 billion and includes 52% cash and 48% stock. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015.
A little background on Lynda.com: it is an online learning company that helps anyone learn business, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. The company also provides German, French and Spanish-language content under the video2brain brand name.
Following the closing, most members of the Lynda.com team are expected to join LinkedIn. In 2014, Lynda.com was reported as having more than 500 employees, compared to LinkedIn’s nearly 7,000 employees.
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Note that LinkedIn has over 300 million members worldwide.
Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, commented on the acquisition:
The mission of LinkedIn and the mission of lynda.com are highly aligned. Both companies seek to help professionals be better at what they do. lynda.com’s extensive library of premium video content helps empower people to develop the skills needed to accelerate their careers. When integrated with the hundreds of millions of members and millions of jobs on LinkedIn, lynda.com can change the way in which people connect to opportunity.
Eric Robison, CEO of Lynda.com, was pleased with the route that these companies are taking:
In LinkedIn, we have found an incredible partner who shares our vision and passion for empowering people around the world to make real change in their lives through access to information, learning and professional development.
It is worth asking if this 1.5 billion transaction is enough to move the needle for LinkedIn, with its market cap of roughly $32 billion. Or maybe LinkedIn’s future will be full of bolt-on transactions.
Shares of LinkedIn were down about 1% at $249.98 early Thursday, in a 52-week trading range of $136.02 to $276.18. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $290.71.
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