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Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn

Chawm Ganguly — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 16:35:14 +0000

Deal brings together the world’s leading professional cloud with the world’s leading professional network.

REDMOND, Washington and MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, June 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) on Monday announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion , inclusive of LinkedIn’s net cash. LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence. Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella , CEO of Microsoft. Reid Hoffman , chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction. The transaction is expected to close this calendar year.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest and most valuable professional network and continues to build a strong and growing business. Over the past year, the company has launched a new version of its mobile app that has led to increased member engagement; enhanced the LinkedIn newsfeed to deliver better business insights; acquired a leading online learning platform called Lynda.com to enter a new market; and rolled out a new version of its Recruiter product to its enterprise customers. These innovations have resulted in increased membership, engagement and financial results, specifically:

19 percent growth year over year (YOY) to more than 433 million members worldwide
9 percent growth YOY to more than 105 million unique visiting members per month
49 percent growth YOY to 60 percent mobile usage
34 percent growth YOY to more than 45 billion quarterly member page views
101 percent growth YOY to more than 7 million active job listings

“The LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business centered on connecting the world’s professionals,” Nadella said. “Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet.”

“Just as we have changed the way the world connects to opportunity, this relationship with Microsoft, and the combination of their cloud and LinkedIn’s network, now gives us a chance to also change the way the world works,” Weiner said. “For the last 13 years, we’ve been uniquely positioned to connect professionals to make them more productive and successful, and I’m looking forward to leading our team through the next chapter of our story.”

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both LinkedIn and Microsoft. The deal is expected to close this calendar year and is subject to approval by LinkedIn’s shareholders, the satisfaction of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

“Today is a re-founding moment for LinkedIn. I see incredible opportunity for our members and customers and look forward to supporting this new and combined business,” said Hoffman. “I fully support this transaction and the Board’s decision to pursue it, and will vote my shares in accordance with their recommendation on it.”

Microsoft will finance the transaction primarily through the issuance of new indebtedness. Upon closing, Microsoft expects LinkedIn’s financials to be reported as part of Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment. Microsoft expects the acquisition to have minimal dilution of ~1 percent to non-GAAP earnings per share for the remainder of fiscal year 2017 post-closing and for fiscal year 2018 based on the expected close date, and become accretive to Microsoft’s non-GAAP earnings per share in Microsoft’s fiscal year 2019 or less than two years post-closing. Non-GAAP includes stock-based compensation expense consistent with Microsoft’s reporting practice, and excludes expected impact of purchase accounting adjustments as well as integration and transaction-related expenses. In addition, Microsoft also reiterated its intention to complete its existing $40 billion share repurchase authorization by Dec. 31, 2016 , the same timeframe as previously committed.

Microsoft and LinkedIn will host a joint conference call with investors on June 13, 2016 , at 8:45 a.m. Pacific Time / 11:45 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss this transaction. The call will be available via webcast at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor and will be hosted by Nadella and Weiner, as well as Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith . The presentation for the call is available on the Microsoft News Center.

Morgan Stanley is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Microsoft, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal advisor to Microsoft. Qatalyst Partners and Allen & Company LLC are acting as financial advisors to LinkedIn, while Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation, is acting as legal advisor.

About LinkedIn

LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful and transforms the way companies hire, market, and sell. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph. LinkedIn has more than 400 million members and has offices around the globe .

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

In connection with the transaction, LinkedIn Corporation (the “Company”) will file relevant materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including a proxy statement on Schedule 14A. Promptly after filing its definitive proxy statement with the SEC, the Company will mail the definitive proxy statement and a proxy card to each stockholder entitled to vote at the special meeting relating to the transaction. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF THE COMPANY ARE URGED TO READ THESE MATERIALS (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE TRANSACTION THAT THE COMPANY WILL FILE WITH THE SEC WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY AND THE TRANSACTION. The definitive proxy statement, the preliminary proxy statement and other relevant materials in connection with the transaction (when they become available), and any other documents filed by the Company with the SEC, may be obtained free of charge at the SEC’s website ( http://www.sec.gov ) or at LinkedIn’s website ( http://investors.linkedin.com ) or by writing to LinkedIn Corporation, Investor Relations, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, California 94043.

The Company and its directors and executive officers are participants in the solicitation of proxies from the Company’s stockholders with respect to the transaction. Information about the Company’s directors and executive officers and their ownership of the Company’s common stock is set forth in the Company’s proxy statement on Schedule 14A filed with the SEC on April 22, 2016 . To the extent that holdings of the Company’s securities have changed since the amounts printed in the Company’s proxy statement, such changes have been or will be reflected on Statements of Change in Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC. Information regarding the identity of the participants, and their direct or indirect interests in the transaction, by security holdings or otherwise, will be set forth in the proxy statement and other materials to be filed with SEC in connection with the transaction.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to the proposed transaction and business combination between Microsoft and LinkedIn, including statements regarding the benefits of the transaction, the anticipated timing of the transaction and the products and markets of each company. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) the risk that the transaction may not be completed in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect LinkedIn’s business and the price of the common stock of LinkedIn, (ii) the failure to satisfy the conditions to the consummation of the transaction, including the adoption of the merger agreement by the stockholders of LinkedIn and the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory approvals, (iii) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the merger agreement, (iv) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transaction on LinkedIn’s business relationships, operating results, and business generally, (v) risks that the proposed transaction disrupts current plans and operations of LinkedIn or Microsoft and potential difficulties in LinkedIn employee retention as a result of the transaction, (vi) risks related to diverting management’s attention from LinkedIn’s ongoing business operations, (vii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against us or against LinkedIn related to the merger agreement or the transaction, (viii) the ability of Microsoft to successfully integrate LinkedIn’s operations, product lines, and technology, and (ix) the ability of Microsoft to implement its plans, forecasts, and other expectations with respect to LinkedIn’s business after the completion of the proposed merger and realize additional opportunities for growth and innovation. In addition, please refer to the documents that Microsoft and LinkedIn file with the SEC on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements set forth in this press release. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Microsoft and LinkedIn assume no obligation and do not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

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Microsoft Announces New Solutions To Empower IT Professionals

Chawm Ganguly — Tue, 05 May 2015 06:02:42 +0000

— New Windows 10 management tools help IT professionals deliver updates and features to employees.

CHICAGO, May 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Monday at its first-ever Ignite Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced a range of new products and services that help IT professionals lead their companies in the new era of enterprise computing, including the next generation of Windows management, Microsoft Office, hybrid cloud infrastructure and SQL Server.

“No business can succeed and scale without IT innovating and transforming,” said Satya Nadella , CEO of Microsoft. “Empowering IT professionals is a key part of Microsoft’s technology agenda spanning Windows 10, Office 365, Azure and other cloud technologies.”

Brad Anderson’s Official Microsoft Blog post about the company’s focus on IT professionals can be found here .

Speaking to more than 23,000 conference attendees, as well as thousands of online viewers, Nadella showcased how Microsoft is fueling IT pro innovation and success. He was joined on stage by Jose Angel Sanchez , CEO of Real Madrid C.F., winner of the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup and the FIFA Best Club of the 20th Century.

“Real Madrid is a club with a great tradition of winning, and our partnership with Microsoft for digital transformation will help us win both on and off the field,” Sanchez said. “The Microsoft cloud and its entire product portfolio is helping us change into a truly data-driven organization and to provide 450 million fans around the globe with exclusive, personalized content and services — before, during and after matches.”

Today’s announcements address multiple challenges and opportunities for IT professionals:

More personal computing

Windows Update for Business, introduced today, is a new management option for Windows 10 to always keep devices up to date with the latest security updates and Windows features. The new solution will help reduce management costs, provide control over update deployment, offer faster access to security updates and critical fixes, and deliver the latest innovation from Microsoft on an ongoing basis. The Windows Store for Business offers additional manageability, enabling company decision-makers to acquire trusted software or content for entire teams and companies.
System Center Configuration Manager for managing Windows 10, available today in technical preview, gives IT professionals expanded tools to deploy, update, manage and secure Windows 10, and will integrate with Windows Update for Business. In addition, next week, Microsoft will release service packs for existing Configuration Manager 2012 and 2012 R2 customers, as well as an update to Microsoft Intune for Windows 10 support.

Reinventing productivity

Office 2016, available in broad public preview today, brings in-app, real-time co-authoring to the rich Office desktop applications used by over 1 billion people worldwide. Real-time presence and the ability to see changes to text and formatting as they happen will help co-workers and teams stay on the same page as they create content.
Skype for Business broadcasting, introduced today, enables customers to broadcast meetings to up to 10,000 people. The service uses Azure Media Services for streaming audio, video and PowerPoint presentations, and offers built-in interoperability with Bing Pulse for sentiment tracking and Yammer for audience conversations. Extensibility enables third parties to add audience polling, formal Q&A and other functionality.
Organizational analytics in Office Delve, introduced and demonstrated today, is powered by the Office Graph, expanding upon personalized insights from Office Delve to provide organizational insights to individuals and teams from Office 365 data. A rich dashboard measures, tracks and identifies key trends such as engagement, reach and work-life balance across individuals’ interactions within their organization and with external teams.
SharePoint Server 2016, showcased today and in preview later this year, will deliver enhancements and new capabilities across new user experiences, compliance and reporting. The new version gives on-premises SharePoint customers access to new capabilities in the cloud through hybrid deployments with Office 365.
Exchange Server 2016, also demonstrated at Ignite and in preview later this year, delivers new features first delivered in Office 365, such as a new approach to document collaboration, faster and more intelligent search, improved eDiscovery, and developer extensibility for mail, calendar and contacts.

Intelligent cloud

Next-generation hybrid cloud. Introduced today and in preview this summer, Microsoft Azure Stack brings the Azure user experience and both infrastructure and platform-as-a-service capabilities into customers’ datacenters. With Azure Stack IT teams can easily blend enterprise applications with modern, distributed applications and services while maintaining centralized oversight. Built on the same core technology as Azure, Azure Stack extends Microsoft’s investments in secure, more flexible software-defined infrastructure. The next preview of Windows Server 2016 is available today, providing a premium platform for enterprise and cloud applications, with technologies such as Nano Server , a lightweight installation option. Available today, Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) is a cloud-based solution that extends System Center capabilities for management across almost any hybrid cloud, including Azure, third-party clouds such as Amazon Web Services, Windows Server, Linux, VMware or OpenStack. OMS extends System Center 2016 , which is also available in preview this week.
SQL Server 2016, in preview this summer, takes a major leap forward with a database and analytics platform that provides breakthrough performance for mission-critical applications and deeper insights on any data across on-premises and cloud. Key capabilities include enhanced in-memory technologies with real-time operational analytics, new security and encryption technologies, built-in advanced analytics with the R language, and mobile BI for on-premises data. The new Stretch Database capability is an industry first that allows for cost-effective access to historical data by dynamically stretching data to Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA), technology based on the recent acquisition of Aorato, is available in preview. ATA helps IT security professionals identify security breaches and threats, using behavioral analysis and machine learning to provide clear, actionable information.
Office 365 transparency and control enhancements, highlighted at Ignite, give customers enhanced visibility and security of their data residing within Office 365, including Customer Lockbox that provides customers with explicit approval rights for Microsoft interaction with their data. Office 365 is the only productivity service to provide this level of customer control.

More information and news from Ignite, such as a news fact sheet, keynote presentations, links to product blog posts and partner announcements, can be found at the Microsoft News Center.

Readers can also follow and engage with the Microsoft Twitter community at @MSFTNews and @MS_Ignite using #MSIgnite.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

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Microsoft empowers Windows, iOS, Android, Mac and Linux developers to reach billions of new customers

Chawm Ganguly — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 09:40:38 +0000

— Announces new toolkits, tools, cloud and productivity services designed for every developer.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced new features in Windows 10 and unveiled a set of software development kits (SDKs) to help developers bring their code for the Web, .NET, Win32, Android and iOS to Windows 10. At the company’s annual Build developer conference, Microsoft also announced new Microsoft Azure data services for intelligent applications; Visual Studio and .NET tools and runtimes for Windows, Mac and Linux; and APIs that enable developers to build rich apps with Office 365.

“Microsoft has bold ambitions for platforms that empower developers across Windows, Azure and Office,” said Satya Nadella , CEO of Microsoft. “Together, we will create more personal and more intelligent experiences that empower billions of people to achieve more.”

Windows 10 offers unique scale and opens up new platform opportunities for developers
Microsoft showcased several new features in Windows 10, from new capabilities to scale applications across devices to new ways for developers to build code for Windows 10. Capturing the breadth of opportunity, the company declared its ambition to have 1 billion active Windows 10 devices by FY18.

The company further detailed ways in which developers can create a single app that scales across all Windows 10 devices, automatically adapting to different screen sizes. With the Universal Windows Platform, developers can tailor their apps to the unique capabilities of each device, integrate Cortana and Xbox Live into their apps, offer trusted commerce, create holograms, and publish their apps into the Windows Store. Also as part of the Universal Windows Platform, the company shared how apps can scale using Continuum for phones, enabling people to use their phones like PCs for productivity or entertainment. ¹

The Windows Store will also offer a single unified experience for Windows 10 customers across devices and make finding great content easier than ever — across apps, games, music, video and other content. ²Transactions will take advantage of a range of popular payment options, including the largest carrier billing footprint of any ecosystem supporting 90 mobile operators. USA Today, WeChat, Disney and Netflix Inc. are a few of the partners referenced in the keynote already building apps for the Windows Store.

Microsoft welcomed all developers to the Universal Windows Platform by announcing four new software development toolkits that will make it easy to bring their code for the Web, .NET, Win32, iOS and Android to the Windows Store with minimal code modifications. This will enable developers to start with an existing code base such as Android or iOS, integrate with the Universal Windows Platform capabilities, and then distribute their new application through the Windows Store.

New features for Microsoft Edge, the new browser for Windows 10, were also unveiled, offering developers better discoverability of their apps and future extensibility with JavaScript and HTML.

Highlighting the opportunity with Windows 10, Microsoft shared the progress it has made in fewer than 100 days since unveiling Microsoft HoloLens — the world’s first untethered holographic computer powered by Windows 10 — and showcased how customers like Trimble, Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic are using this innovative new technology.

More information on Windows 10 and Microsoft HoloLens can be found at Blogging Windows .

Azure and Visual Studio help developers build intelligent apps on multiple platforms and devices

Microsoft previewed Azure SQL Database elastic database, which allow ISVs and software-as-a-service developers to pool capacity across thousands of databases, enabling them to benefit from efficient resource consumption and the best price and performance in the public cloud. To help developers manage massive datasets, Microsoft introduced Azure SQL Data Warehouse, the industry’s first enterprise-class cloud data warehouse as a service that can grow, shrink and pause in seconds. Microsoft also announced Azure Data Lake, an open and massively scalable data repository that supports petabyte-size files and provides high-speed integration with Azure HDInsight, Azure Machine Learning, Cloudera and Hortonworks to quickly derive insights from vast amounts of data.

To help every developer be more productive, Microsoft announced new best-in-class tools and runtimes for multiple platforms and devices. In preview on Windows, Mac and Linux, Visual Studio Code is a free code-focused editor optimized for Web and cloud applications. Furthering its work with open source and .NET communities, Microsoft released a preview of the .NET Core for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Microsoft also released Visual Studio 2015 Release Candidate, which makes it easier for developers to build and deploy applications to Windows, Linux, iOS and Android platforms.

Office gives developers opportunities to reach more users and build intelligent solutions
Microsoft introduced more ways for developers to reach 1.2 billion Office users, including the new Office Graph API, expanded add-in capabilities for the iPad and Outlook, and unified APIs. The Office Graph API allows customers and developers to access, add to and build with the Office Graph, an intelligent store of Office 365 user, service and relationship data. Unified APIs across OneNote, Outlook and OneDrive, combined with the Office Graph, will enable developers to help consumers and organizations take advantage of some of their most valuable and useful data.

More about Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio and the Office Graph API can be found here .

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

¹Limited to select premium phones at launch. External monitors must support HDMI input. Accessories sold separately.
²App availability and experience may vary by market.

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