LinkedIn Announces $119 Million Purchase Of SlideShare

Professional social network LinkedIn has announced that it intends to purchase another company called SlideShare for $119 million. The bill be paid for with 45% cash and 55% LinkedIn stock. If you've never heard of SlideShare, it allows users to upload documents to the Web and then embed them other places online.

The purchase makes sense for LinkedIn considering that the network caters to professional users. Professional users are certainly more apt to create presentations that they might want to share with other people on the site and with people in other places around the web. With SlideShare, uploading a presentation once allows to be shared just about anywhere.

SlideShare founders point out that its original investor Venrock came out well on the deal with a 15 times return on their original investment. It's not clear if the deal requires any approvals from regulators or LinkedIn investors.

"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," said LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. "These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain the 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."

[via Business Insider]