Who owns LinkedIn??

Ever heard of LinkedIn? Of course, you have. Like Instagram, Facebook and a lot of other social networking sites out there, LinkedIn is also a social networking site. But what exactly is LinkedIn? How is it different from the other social networking sites? And who owns it??

Worry not, you will get all the answers you need here if you are willing to hold on and read the article till the end. 

Let’s begin with our first question

What exactly is LinkedIn??

LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman in December of 2002 and launched in the month of May 2003 as a business and employment-oriented online service. Currently, LinkedIn headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, California. It also has 33 global offices located in different parts of the world.

LinkedIn operates through its website and mobile applications. Its been over 17 years since LinkedIn has entered the professional world and it hasn’t been the same ever since. The site allows job seekers to upload their resumes and allow employers to post available job positions.

It has become one of the main mediums of connection between the employers and the job seekers over the years. By the end of 2020, LinkedIn had 760 million registered users across 150 countries. Ryan Roslansky is the current CEO of LinkedIn and Jeff Weiner who was also the previous CEO of the company is the Executive Chairman now.

How is LinkedIn different from other social networking sites??

Like all the other social networking sites we know, LinkedIn is also used to make connections. But what makes LinkedIn different from the other is that it is a professional networking site and focusses on building professional relationships and career development. The site is designed to allow people to search for jobs, post their experiences and resumes and to make business connections.

LinkedIn is a lot similar to other social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram. Like we do on Facebook, we can also connect with friends, post updates, message other users and also like and share the content on LinkedIn. But the main difference we see here is that all these are made for professional purposes. Connecting with friends here is ‘making business connections and your profile is your resume. 

You can search and apply for jobs on this networking site and the companies that are compatible with LinkedIn now can view and pick the potential candidates eligible for the post. You can also get information about the job postings in the companies that you are interested to work with.

Like you already know, LinkedIn is a professional networking site, many people grow their professional contacts by using this site and find more career opportunities. LinkedIn also has settings which let you alert the recruiters that you are actively searching for jobs as well. 

Who owns LinkedIn?

Now coming to our main question, Who owns LinkedIn?

LinkedIn was bought by Microsoft in December 2016. Microsoft bought the company for $26.2 billion and paid $196 for each share of the company. Since then LinkedIn has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft.

Satya Nadella in a mail to the Microsoft employees announced that through this deal he is excited to bring the leading professional network in the world together with the leading professional cloud in the world. He expressed his confidence in LinkedIn and the network of 433 million professionals it had at that time of acquisition.

Jeff Weiner, who was the CEO of LinkedIn during the acquisition explained his decision to sell to Microsoft through an email to the employees of LinkedIn. He also mentioned that Satya Nadella has been one of the important factors that contributed to the decision.

In the email, Weiner mentioned how Microsoft has evolved into a more innovative, agile and purpose-driven company under the leadership of Satya Nadella and how his ideas for the future of LinkedIn under Microsoft convinced and made him excited about the transaction.

Weiner also clarified that the transaction was approved by both LinkedIn and the Board of Directors of Microsoft unanimously and that the LinkedIn would remain as a fully independent entity under the Microsoft.

LinkedIn has maintained its distinct brand and culture even after the acquisition and still is one of the biggest professional networks out there.

Wrapping up

Hope this article answered your questions about LinkedIn and its ownership. If you want to know more about the companies, their business models and ownerships and more visit the Zeen website.

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