LinkedIn wants to teach you stuff
LinkedIn, the professional networking site, is purchasing Lynda.com, the online video training company, in a deal worth $1.5 billion in cash and stock. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015, LinkedIn said in a press release.
“The combination of LinkedIn and lynda.com is the kind of fit that benefits everyone,” LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner wrote in a company blog post. “LinkedIn has the members, the jobs… and… can be accessed by roughly 350 million people to share professionally relevant knowledge. lynda.com’s service has the premium library of skills-based courses.”
The acquisition makes sense in terms of LinkedIn’s goals “to build out kind of an entire ecosystem around training, job recruitment, job hiring, talent development,” says Analyst Mark Mahaney of RBC Capital Markets.
But it also has pitfalls for LinkedIn, says Colin Gillis of BGC Partners. “You’re paying $1.5 billion for a business that is a subscription business and may come into pressure from free sites like YouTube.”
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