The same company that probably powers your desktop, now wants to power your career.
Microsoft Corp.’s $26.2 billion deal to buy LinkedIn gives it not just one of the mega m&a deals of the year, but another finger on fashion’s professional pulse.
The networking site will get a boost in its ambitious efforts to bring the world together, at work. Linked in has over 400 million users — including just over 258,000 in the “Fashion & Lifestyle Industry Professionals Worldwide” group — and much bigger goals.
Jeff Weiner, who is set to remain chief executive officer of LinkedIn after the deal closes later this year, told analysts on a conference call today that, “We’re going to be able to take a very substantial leap forward in terms of the realization of our vision which is creating the economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
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Weiner said the company is developing “a digital mapping of the global economy” that would include a LinkedIn profile for everyone in the three billion-strong global workforce as well as every company and each of the 20-million-plus job openings.
People could use the map to see every skill required to get those jobs and digital profiles for schools that teach those skills.
Technology has certainly transformed the economy and LinkedIn wants to keep the ball rolling.
“The goal is then to take a step back and to allow capital all forms of capital,” Weiner said. “Intellectual capital, working capital and human capital to flow to where it can be best leveraged. And in so doing, help transform and lift the global economy.”
The deal will help LinkedIn tap into Microsoft’s cloud computing expertise and its vast business relationships.
LinkedIn’s vision is typically ambitious for Silicon Valley, offering at once the sense that technology can bring people together and that the world can be boiled down into data points to be sorted and linked.