The world’s largest professional networking website LinkedIn has struck a deal to purchase presentation website SlideShare for close to $119 million, a move that is expected to be mutually beneficial.
SlideShare is already one of LinkedIn’s most popular applications, according to an analyst with Needham & Co. It is not entirely clear how the two companies will integrate beyond how they are currently.
LinkedIn Senior Vice President Deep Nishar told AFP: “SlideShare and LinkedIn have been working closely together to help professionals be more effective and productive through the content they create and share."
As of the first quarter of 2012, LinkedIn had over 160 million users and is adding users at the rate of two per second.
LinkedIn Chief Executive Jeff Weiner said during a conference call that many professionals share information via presentations. Presentations also aid users in gaining insight and connections, he said, which aligns with LinkedIn’s mission statement.
Founded in 2006, SlideShare allows users to upload presentations which can be shared on LinkedIn and other social networking sites as well as on blogs and websites. In addition to presentations, users can also upload webinars, PDFs, videos and documents.
In March, SlideShare had 29 million visitors.
Service for SlideShare users will be unaffected. Co-founder Rashmi Sinha told AFP the company is a good fit for LinkedIn and believes SlideShare will grow faster with the social networking site.
LinkedIn’s Future Bright
Since going public, LinkedIn has outperformed analyst expectations. Both revenue and the number of subscribers have risen. The latest SlideShare buy marks the company’s fifth acquisition in two years.
Weiner’s has been pushing to expand the site’s mobile technology in the hopes of both attracting advertisers and attracting members to its subscriptions services. The company’s fastest growing service is mobile, Weiner said.
According to LinkedIn, the site currently derives the majority of its revenue from premium subscriptions, marketing solutions and hiring solutions.
Key Statistics - LinkedIn (source: LinkedIn press center)
- LinkedIn is the world’s largest online professional network, with over 160 million members worldwide – including executives from every Fortune 500 company.
- As of March 31, 2012, some 61% of LinkedIn members were located outside of the US.
- In 2011, LinkedIn members did a total of 4.2 billion professionally oriented searches on the website and that number is expected to surpass 5.3 billion in 2012
- There are more than 2 million companies with LinkedIn Company Pages.
