That helps to explain the US$26.2 billion price tag
Microsoft surprised everyone Monday when it announced plans to acquire LinkedIn for more than US$26 billion. But it wasn't the only suitor: Salesforce wanted in, too.
The San Francisco-based software-as-a-service vendor was interested in LinkedIn primarily for its recruiting business, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Recode on Thursday. The company gave LinkedIn a "solid look" but was unable to match Microsoft's huge offer.
Salesforce's interest makes sense: information from the business-focused social network could have proved useful to people working with Salesforce products. Microsoft has similar ambitions for LinkedIn, which it sees as a potential boon to its Dynamics CRM and Office offerings in particular.
According to Recode, Salesforce approached LinkedIn when the company was already deep into negotiations with Microsoft. Salesforce's bid was reportedly a combined cash and stock offer, while Microsoft's final bid was all cash, and allows LinkedIn to continue operating independently.
It's an interesting bit of backstory, especially given that Microsoft last year reportedly tried to buy Salesforce.
Salesforce itself is no stranger to big acquisitions; two weeks ago it said it would buy e-commerce cloud service provider Demandware for $2.8 billion. "It's the season of M&A," Benioff told Recode.
Microsoft, meanwhile, isn't slowing down its acquisition pace either. On Thursday it said it had acquired chat app maker Wand for an undisclosed sum.
While approaching a customer in a shop and asking what you can help them with is Retail 101, how many of us actually enjoy being approached? Generally, you have to give the forced, fake smile and say, “Just browsing, thanks,” while screaming on the inside, “just leave me alone!” Maybe it’s just me?
Not a day passes by in the life of business executives where digital innovation or the prospect of disruption is not front of mind. This in turn, drives an unrelenting flow of questioning, discussion and strategy papers.
Unless you’ve been marketing under a rock, you’ll probably have questioned whether your media agencies are offering you transparency.
In Episode 10 of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with Country Road GM of brand and customer experience, Col Kennedy, about how brands enabling teams to support the customer no matter what they want to achieve is vital to the engagement equation.
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