A Glass Half-Full Approach to Microsoft's Acquisition of LinkedIn

We received dozens of emails, LinkedIn messages, tweets and texts from the folks in our network here at All About Leverage, asking us what we think about the newly announced acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft. Well… we’re taking the glass half-full approach with this one!

This marriage is the potential acceleration of growth for LinkedIn, Microsoft Office 365, and Dynamics. This, my colleagues, is history in the making. It is the marriage of the largest and most powerful professional network and the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, now joining forces to empower people and organizations alike.

The possibilities are endless. This will potentially change the way LinkedIn and Microsoft operate on a global scale. There are 1+billion Microsoft users, and 433+ million LinkedIn Users. The impact could be staggering. This marriage is about creating economic opportunity on a global scale.

In Jeff Weiner’s email to his workforce, he said, “When Satya [Nadella, CEO of Microsoft] first proposed the idea of acquiring LinkedIn, he said it was absolutely essential that we had alignment on two things: Purpose and structure. On the former, it didn’t take long before the two of us realized we had virtually identical mission statements.

For LinkedIn, it was to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, and for Microsoft it was to empower every individual and organization in the world to achieve more. Essentially, we’re both trying to do the same thing but coming at it from two different places: For LinkedIn, it’s the professional network, and for Microsoft, the professional cloud.”

People want to be successful, and productive with their communication tools. Connect that to your professional network… and what opportunities arise? These are just a few…

Massively scaling the reach of LinkedIn to power the social layers of Microsoft’s 1+ billion customers. Think of your capabilities once Outlook, Calendar, Office, Windows, Skype, Dynamics, Cortana, etc. are all woven together.

The integration of LinkedIn’s learning solution, Lynda.com/LinkedIn , with some of the most widely used productivity apps by Microsoft.

Redefining social selling by adding Dynamics

“Whether it's worker displacement, the skills gap, youth unemployment, or socio-economic stratification, the impact on society will be staggering. I’ve said it on multiple occasions and believe it even more so every day: creating economic opportunity will be the defining issue of our time.” - Jeff Weiner