LinkedIn announced Thursday that it has agreed to acquire online professional development company, Lynda.com for roughly $1.5 billion in stock and cash.
“The mission of LinkedIn and the mission of lynda.com are highly aligned. Both companies seek to help professionals be better at what they do,” said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, in the announcement. “lynda.com’s extensive library of premium video content helps empower people to develop the skills needed to accelerate their careers. When integrated with the hundreds of millions of members and millions of jobs on LinkedIn, lynda.com can change the way in which people connect to opportunity.”
Launched in 1995 by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, Caprinteria, California-based Lynda.com is a subscription service providing access to online courses taught by industry experts. Beyond individual subscription service, the company also offers corporate, government and educational organizations services through lyndaEnterprise, lyndaPro, lyndaCampus, lyndaLibrary and lyndaKisok.
“This is such an exciting moment in the 20-year history of Lynda.com, and I couldn’t imagine a better pairing than lynda.com and LinkedIn,” said Lynda Weinman, co-founder and executive chair of the board of lynda.com.
The acquisition will give LinkedIn’s 350 million users exposure to the educational and business skill-building content available through the lynda.com platform.
In a blog post, Linkedin’s head of global content products, Ryan Roslansky, illustrated some of the ways the company is envisioning the integration of lynda.com into the LinkedIn user experience working: “Imagine being a job seeker and being able to instantly know what skills are needed for the available jobs in a desired city, like Denver, and then to be prompted to take the relevant and accredited course to help you acquire this skill. Or doing a search on SlideShare [also owned by LinkedIn] to learn about integrated marketing and then to be prompted with a lynda.com course on the same subject.”
Most members of the Lynda.com team will likely join LinkedIn after the deal closes.
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