On June 13th, Microsoft agreed to buy LinkedIn for $26 billion.. Currently LinkedIn is free for users and I myself actually enjoy building a network on the professional social media site. LinkedIn also offers an upgraded version which you can buy as well. I tried the free trial and did not think it was worth it, but this may all change now that Microsoft is buying the massive 433 million member network. I believe that there are some pros and cons to this merger. First and foremost, Microsoft is a business. They exist to make money and have become quite good at it. Therefore, I think that Microsoft will try to get you to buy there products by placing ads on the site and/or making you buy a membership. They also could put a LinkedIn membership into there office suite which I think might be a cool addition. Microsoft is also a software company and it has been rumored that the Cortana software will be introduced to LinkedIn to help people prepare for meetings. On a little side note, if you are a gamer, Cortana is also the name of the AI in the Halo gaming series, also owned by Microsoft.
Another interesting thing that could happen is that Microsoft puts LinkedIn into there Xbox consuls to entice people who work at home to use Xbox for professional work such as a video chat. Microsoft could do a great deal with LinkedIn, and under current leadership I believe something great could be accomplished. There have been rumors that Microsoft might try to make LinkedIn only work on there software. In that case, I won't be using the social media site anymore, but they would lose a ton of members and so I think that rumor is not worth talking about. What I don't want to see is another Nokia failure.
Microsoft bought Nokia and subsequently ran it into the ground. I would like to see LinkedIn become better and I'm sure the stockholders would as well since they just got a 47 percent increase in their share value. I'm kinda kicking myself in the head for not investing in LinkedIn right about now. What I think is great about all of this is that we have one of the worlds best professional software companies and one of the worlds best professional social media companies combining forces to make the business world better. If this merger becomes the next best thing then I will definitely be buying a monthly membership. I have at times comtemplated leaving the social media site, but with this new deal I will stick around for a few months more to see if all the fuss really leads to something.
