![]() Imagine a world where we’re no longer looking up at Tech Titans such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook, and wondering what it would be like to operate at their extraordinary scale - because we’re one of them. ![]() That, above all else, is the most important rationale behind today’s announcement.Īt this point, some of you may be thinking this sounds completely counterintuitive: How will we be more likely to control our own destiny after being acquired? The answer lies in both the way in which the world has been evolving and the unique way in which this deal will be structured. In order to pursue our mission and vision, and to do so in a way consistent with our culture and values, we need to control our own destiny. Simply put, what we do matters, and matters more than ever. That’s why I’m here and why I can’t imagine doing any other job. 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. Whether it’s worker displacement, the skills gap, youth unemployment, or socio-economic stratification, the impact on society will be staggering. In the last three weeks alone, Foxconn announced it will replace 60,000 factory workers with robots, a former CEO of McDonald’s said given rising wages, the same would happen throughout their franchises, Walmart announced plans to start testing drones in its warehouses, and Elon Musk predicted fully autonomous car technology would arrive within two years. Remember that dystopian view of the future in which technology displaces millions of people from their jobs? It’s happening. While this has always been top of mind for me, it’s never been more so than now. Regardless of the ups and downs, we’ve come out the other side knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is the best thing for our company.Įvery day I come to work, I’m primarily guided by two things:įirst, realizing our mission and vision. Every member of the exec team has experienced the same, but we’ve had months to process. You might feel a sense of excitement, fear, sadness, or some combination of all of those emotions. No matter what you’re feeling now, give yourself some time to process the news. Today’s announcement, that LinkedIn will be combining forces with Microsoft, marks the next step in our journey together, the next stepping stone toward realizing our mission and vision, and in remaining CEO of the company, the next chapter in the greatest professional experience of my life. Our team has grown from 338 people to over 10,000, our membership from 32M to over 433M and our revenue from $78M to over $3 billion.ĭespite those accomplishments, we’ve only just begun to realize our full potential and purpose: Our mission to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, and our vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Never in my wildest dreams, could I have imagined what would happen in the next 7½ years. ![]() My rationale for joining LinkedIn was simple: The opportunity to work with Reid Hoffman, a founder I greatly admired and respected to join an extremely talented and dedicated team and to massively scale LinkedIn’s membership and business, both of which had the potential to fundamentally transform the way the world connects to opportunity. It requires a vibrant network that brings together a professional’s information in LinkedIn’s public network with the information in Office 365 and Dynamics.”ĭecember 15th, 2008, marked the first day of the best job I’ve ever had. Think about it: How people find jobs, build skills, sell, market and get work done and ultimately find success requires a connected professional world. His note said, “ Along with the new growth in our Office 365 commercial and Dynamics businesses this deal is key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes. Satya Nadella in his note to Microsoft employees wrote there will be more synergy between LinkedIn and Microsoft’s products, hinting a possible syncing between Office 365 and LinkedIn. Microsoft-LinkedIn’s deal is close to $26 billion in an all cash transaction making it one of the biggest deals in the history of the technology world, valued slightly higher than Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional social network, will now be a part of Microsoft, after the latter announced an acquisition. Long story short, Satya had me at “independence,” wrote LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner on the Microsoft buyout. ![]()
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