SlideShare, the content sharing community application for professionals has become the target for acquisition of the corporate social network, LinkedIn. The transaction has been valued at approximately $118.75 million and is said to be completed with 45% of it in cash and the remaining 55% in shares. According to LinkedIn; subject to the completion of customary conditions, the acquisition is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2012.
To give you a brief explanation as to what SlideShare is all about if you don’t know it, it helps professionals discover people through content, and content through people. It apparently accomplishes this by enabling the sharing of presentations across the internet with statistics of nearly 7.4 million presentations across more than 1.4 million unique domains to date. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said, “Presentations are one of the main ways in which professionals capture and share their experiences and knowledge, which in turn helps shape their professional identity. These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain insights they need to become more productive and successful in their careers, aligning perfectly with LinkedIn’s mission and helping us deliver even more value for our members. We’re very excited to welcome the SlideShare team to LinkedIn.”
As for SlideShare, its CEO Rashmi Sinha claims that the company was built in the first to share presentations and connect people but with the incorporation of the service into LinkedIn; what she called the largest professional network on the internet, she claims that this is the most natural of extensions of the company’s vision. Of course with LinkedIn definitely very effective in the corporate social world, an acquisition with a company like SlideShare does make sense to a person from the outside. Does this mean we will be able to see an integrated SlideShare feature for the millions of users that are on LinkedIn? My bet is on the fact that we will, but for now, we will just have to wait until the transaction is completed and the paperwork has been completed and submitted before the end of June.
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