LinkedIn to Acquire lynda.com
Mountain View, Calif. – April 9, 2015 – LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 300 million members worldwide, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire lynda.com, a leading online learning company teaching business, technology and creative skills to help people achieve their professional goals. Based in Carpinteria, CA, lynda.com was co-founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin.
The transaction is valued at approximately $1.5 billion, subject to adjustment, in a combination of approximately 52 percent cash and approximately 48 percent stock. Subject to the completion of customary conditions, the acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2015.
Welcome to the LinkedIn Family, lynda.com!
LinkedIn + lynda.com: Connect to Learning
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you Lynda and Bruce. You have made today’s blog post the easiest one for me to write since I started blogging Sunday mornings around five years ago.
For those of you who know me, since becoming the Executive Director of the www.NYDLA.org my “battle cry” has been: EVERYTHING IS DISTANCE LEARNING. I have been selling telecom and technology since 1983. I have watched the worlds of business and education morph and become reinvented many times.
I watched how a college campus would once be judged by the size of its library; now it is judged by the speed of its wireless internet. I watched “the stacks” and Microfiche readers become replaced by iPads and YouTube videos accessing sites such as Khan Academy. I watched Google for Education come to life, and the birth of the Microsoft Cloud. I was a witness to the smartphone revolution, and the voice-enabled personal assistant trend.
Siri: Apple’s Siri is a fully voiced assistant that’s been available to iPhone users since the inception of the iPhone 4S, offering users the freedom to ask questions, set up appointments and reminders, and interact with the sassy digital diva by setting up a nickname and more.
Cortana: Microsoft’s assistant is based off of the character of the same name from Microsoft’s Halo video game franchise. Featuring voice actress Jen Taylor, Cortana is available to anyone using Windows Phone 8.1. In some cases, you’ll receive your results with a computer-generated voice that is, admittedly, a lot less interesting than Taylor’s.
Google Now: Google Now is all about easy access and simplicity. When triggering voice commands, you can simply say, “OK, Google…” and then give your command. Like Siri and Cortana, you can look up info online, but Google Now is also good at delivering personal recommendations based on your search history and preferences. With just a few words, you can pull up YouTube videos, or TED.com talks on just about any topic, and watch them from anywhere in the world. And don’t get me started about TED.com! What an amazing happy accident, as they say. No one could have predicted the billions of views TED.com talks have earned over the years.
The worlds of education and business are now so deeply intertwined that you cannot tell where one begins and the other ends. We are all lifelong learners. Knowledge, technology and talent have become the coin of the realm, now matter your age, your social status, or geography. You need all three to survive (and thrive) in today’s global economy. Knowledge, technology and talent. Two out of three is just not good enough.
You can observe a lot by just watching ~ Yogi Berra
I am one of LinkedIn’s first 100,000 members. I watched them grow into a company that can make a $1.5 billion dollar purchase without breaking a sweat. I watched companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft become household names.
Take the time to read the posts from Jeff and Lynda above. Watch the video from the CEO of LinkedIn, it is only a few minutes long. It explains why a company would spend $1.5 billion (and more) to buy a leading online learning company teaching business, technology and creative skills to help people achieve their professional goals.
I guess “Everything Is Distance Learning” after all.
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