Why LinkedIn Is Acquiring Lynda.com? CEO Explains

LinkedIn Corp (NYSE: LNKD) announced on Thursday that it will be acquiring EdTech company Lynda.com in a $1.5 cash and stock deal. Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, was on CNBC recently to explain why Lynda.com is a great fit for the company and how LinkedIn plans to integrate Lynda.com to its platform.Connecting Members To Opportunity"It certainly is a great fit for our company," Weiner said. "At heart we are trying to connect our members to opportunity whether that be finding a job or advancing throughout your career and learning the skills you need to take that next step and that's exactly what Lynda.com is all about. It's really a world class organization when it comes to building consistent high quality content that we believe our members are going to benefit from tremendously."IntegrationWeiner was asked how is LinkedIn going to integrate Lynda.com on its platform and how soon will the company do that. He replied, "Well, in the immediate term it will continue to be an independent operation and organization, but there are some very clear areas of integration that we are really excited to try out."He continued, "So, for example if you are looking for a particular subject matter on our publishing platform or on Slide Share, we could add a Lynda.com learning module that would enable you to access the right kind of content to continue that process. If you are looking for a job, we know what skills you have and what skills the job requires and if there's a gap we can suggest you take the right Lynda.com course in order to put you in a better position to take advantage of that role.""If you are promoted, we could send you a congratulatory note and let you know that other people who are in a kind of role that you are in have certain skills that you may not have and again we'll be in a position to prompt someone to acquire those skills," Weiner concluded.