Microsoft Closes $26.2B LinkedIn Acquisition, Looks Toward Product Integrations

December 08, 2016, 12:08 PM EST

Six months after revealing an agreement to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, Microsoft announced the close of the deal — its largest acquisition ever — Thursday.

In a post on LinkedIn, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote that the joining of the two companies will ultimately "help professionals transform how they work, realize new career opportunities and connect in new ways."

The LinkedIn-Microsoft integration plan will, "in the immediate term," include several scenarios, Nadella said in the post.

[Related: Microsoft To Acquire LinkedIn For $26.2B]

Those include product integrations such as LinkedIn identity and network in Microsoft Outlook and the Office suite; LinkedIn notifications within the Windows action center; and enabling members to draft resumes in Word to update profiles, and discover and apply to jobs on LinkedIn, according to the post.

Down the road, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft aims to leverage LinkedIn to help users develop new skills online, Nadella wrote.

Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn has continued growing steadily since the deal was unveiled in June.

The professional networking site said it had 467 million members as of the end of the third quarter, up 18 percent from a year earlier.

And LinkedIn generated $960 million in revenue during the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 23 percent year over year.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, who is remaining at the helm of LinkedIn under Microsoft's ownership, wrote in a post that "day-to-day operations will essentially remain unchanged" at LinkedIn.

Kyle Alspach

Kyle Alspach is a Senior Editor at CRN focused on cybersecurity. His coverage spans news, analysis and deep dives on the cybersecurity industry, with a focus on fast-growing segments such as cloud security, application security and identity security.  He can be reached at kalspach@thechannelcompany.com.