Microsoft and LinkedIn may never be able to deliver on the ambitions outlined in a PowerPoint presentation, but the strategic rationale makes sense. Microsoft gets social heft, a network of business pros, leads for its business and touch points to every person looking to be productive. LinkedIn is a social network hoping to be more of an human resources software company with no real skills to deliver.
On paper, these two companies may just complete each other and equate to Microsoft becoming an human capital management software player on some level. The $26.2 billion bet–and whopping 49.5 percent premium–means that executing on what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlined may be tricky.