LinkedIn Splashes $118.75m on SlideShare

Social networking service LinkedIn has plans to splash $118.75 million (£73.4 million) on SlideShare, a professional presentation platform.

Over nine million presentations have been uploaded to SlideShare and in March, it scored almost 29 million unique visitors, meaning LinkedIn could have its hands on a sizeable customer base.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said the addition of presentations to the site’s portfolio would bring more value for its 161 million members.

Patents and presentations

“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,” Weiner said. “These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain the insights they need to become more productive and successful in their careers.”

Rashmi Sinha , CEO of SlideShare, indicated the company would continue to develop even though it has been swallowed up by LinkedIn. “What we can build with LinkedIn, the largest professional network on the Internet, is the most natural extension of this vision,” he added

LinkedIn has been on something of an acquisition spree of late. In February, it agreed to buy Rapportive, which provides a browser plugin that injects contact information from  other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It also acquired Connected for real-time contact management last October.

The deal comes just over a year after LinkedIn went public with a successful IPO.

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