LinkedIn goes shopping; buys SlideShare for $118.75 million

The latest one in the business to have picked up their shopping bag happens to be the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, LinkedIn, who decided to take their association with SlideShare to a whole new level. LinkedIn has acquired presentation-sharing platform, SlideShare for $118.75 million. Both LinkedIn and SlideShare had been working together on several projects, even before the said deal took place, and the deal thus is, as SlideShare CEO, Rashmi Sinha puts it - “a natural culmination of this partnership.” SlideShare, which is often referred to as the “YouTube for slide shows”, is essentially today is a platform allowing its 29 million monthly visitors to upload, share and find presentations - a feature critical to a business, to depict and define a brand’s identity better.

LinkedIn acquires SlideShare

The acquisition, adds Deep Nishar in an official LinkedIn blogpost, will allow “professionals to discover people through content, and content through people”, thereby enriching the value that a user is set to gain. SlideShare, on the other hand claims that the acquisition will do nothing to change the way they function, or the way their existing users see the service. In an official blog post on SlideShare, CEO, Rashmi Sinha states that users will be able to continue to upload, share and find presentations on the network, like they did before.

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In an official blog post on SlideShare, CEO, Rashmi Sinha states, “You could ask why did we agree to sell? For one, I firmly believe that SlideShare will grow faster with LinkedIn. Second, I have watched as LinkedIn has grown from being a place to share your resume to a much richer site, where you go to keep up with what your professional network is doing and sharing. We like the path they are on, and are excited to join them on this journey.”

LinkedIn attracts 107 million unique monthly visitors. Deep Nishar in the blog post states that, “This acquisition means good things to professionals everywhere. Presentations are a core component of how professionals define and brand their identity. This deal enables professionals to discover people through content, and content through people. We’re excited to figure out the best ways our offerings will work together to help professionals around the world be more productive and successful.”