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The software giant will pay $196 a share - a premium of almost 50% to Friday's closing share price. The deal will help Microsoft boost sales of its business and email software. Microsoft said that LinkedIn would retain its "distinct brand, culture and independence". Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, said the deal would give Microsoft access to the world's biggest professional social network with more than 430 million members worldwide. "That's a valuable asset that can be deeply integrated with a number of Microsoft assets such as Office 365, Exchange and Outlook. That said, Microsoft has stated that the company will continue to operate as an independent business, so we'll have to see how deeply the integration occurs," Mr Wood said.
Analysis: Rory Cellan-Jones, technology correspondent
Ever had one of those annoying LinkedIn emails inviting you to "endorse" a contact for some skill or another? Perhaps LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner and its founder Reid Hoffman deserve to be endorsed for salesmanship after today's deal. After a tricky period in which the shares have fallen amid widening losses, they have persuaded Microsoft to make its biggest deal. The software giant is paying a 50% premium on Friday's closing share price to buy LinkedIn, a price which amounts to $250 (£170) for every active user. To put that into context, that's about the market value of Sky, or eight times as much as Daily Mail owner DMGT - and they are both profitable.
But this deal is about more than money: it is meant as a powerful signal of where Satya Nadella is now taking Microsoft. He sees its future as a cloud computing business providing all sorts of professional services to clients - including a social network to connect them to each other. "We are trying to ride the wave of the new technologies," Mr Nadella told me from Seattle. "It's about AI, it's about mobile, it's about cloud and we're trying to bring those things together." However, the deal to buy Nokia's mobile phones division had a similar logic - and the entire value of that purchase was written off just a year later. So Microsoft's investors may look at that $26bn price tag nervously, while anyone with a few LinkedIn shares may be using the network to send a message of congratulations to their board.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said he had long admired LinkedIn: "I have been thinking about this for a long time." The deal was "key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes", he added. The company planned a different approach to integrating LinkedIn to preserve its culture and brand, Mr Nadella said: "That's what's going to be very very different about this." Microsoft had a long record of successfully integrating acquisitions, he explained, citing Minecraft - the video game whose maker it bought in 2014 for $2.5bn - as well as its very first purchase: the presentation software PowerPoint for $14m in 1987.
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An international warrant had been issued by Interpol and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) coordinated with Czech and Interpol for the arrest. A statement from Czech police spokesperson suggests a Russian-born hacker named Yevgeniy N was arrested on the same day in response to Interpol request but officially the name has not been released yet. The 2012-breach compromised over 100 million user data. Following the announcement of the arrest, in a statement LinkedIn Corp said, “Following the 2012 breach of LinkedIn member information, we have remained actively involved with the FBI's case to pursue those responsible. We are thankful for the hard work and dedication of the FBI in its efforts to locate and capture the parties believed to be responsible for this criminal activity."
However, Andrei Kolmakov, a spokesperson of Russian embassy in Prague insisted the detainee to be handed over to Russia. He also added that the embassy had been notified about the arrest. But Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitri S Peskov denied having any information on the matter. Czech police although have left it to the court to decide if the suspect is to be extradited to the United States. The incident comes in the wake of WikiLeaks and DCLeaks.com leaking emails of U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The director of U.S. national intelligence said in a statement that Russian officials were intending to alter the U.S. election. But the arrested man in Prague is not linked to the ‘email hacks.’ Yet reports suggest that Prague has been the hub for Russian hackers for some time now.
Jakub Janda, the deputy director of the European Values Think-Tank in Prague said, “The arrest served as confirmation that the Czech Republic is so far considered a safe base for Russian intelligence and influence activities focused on Western targets.” “Prague is unofficially considered to be a springboard for some Kremlin activities inside Europe, also using huge Russian diplomatic presence of approximately 140 staff. Western governments are waking up and finally considering hostile Russian intelligence and disinformation operations to be an open and urgent threat, even at the level of the U.S. administration. Open arrests of hostile individuals such as this one can serve as a deterrent element,” Janda added.
Four years after LinkedIn hacks a Russian hacker is arrested in Prague
