Computer software giant Microsoft Corporation announced on Monday that it will acquire business-oriented social networking service LinkedIn Corporation for 26.2 billion U.S. dollars, to seek new growth opportunities for its business productivity tools.

 

计算机软件巨头微软公司周一宣布，将以262亿美元的价格收购面向企业的社交网络服务商领英公司，以此寻找企业生产工具新的发展机会。

 

Under a definitive¹ agreement, Microsoft, once the world's No. 1 software giant for personal computer (PC) and now a multinational² technology company, headquartered in Richmond, Washington, will buy LinkedIn, based in Mountain View, California, for 196 dollars per share in cash and the transaction is expected to close this year.

 

In Microsoft Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Nadella's words, the deal, the biggest since he assumed the position in early 2014, is to bring together the world's leading professional cloud with the world's leading professional network.

 

Microsoft, which has moved its Office application suite³ from a set of PC productivity tools to a cloud service known as Office 365 and now has 1.2 billion users, finds a connection with LinkedIn, which runs an online network connecting more than 400 million professionals worldwide. 

 

"We are in pursuit of a common mission centered on empowering people and organizations," Nadella explained in an email to employees. "Along with the new growth in our Office 365 commercial and Dynamics⁴ businesses, this deal is key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes."

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