Microsoft acquires LinkedIn

On June 13, Microsoft Corporation announced its acquisition of LinkedIn Corporation for $26.2 billion. This is Microsoft’s largest acquisition yet, and the largest in a trend of software vendors acquiring and integrating data as a service (DaaS) into their portfolios. Properly executed, LinkedIn’s vast quantities of data could have significant impact on Microsoft’s customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, and Microsoft could unlock the real business value of LinkedIn’s data.