Though a not-so-great earnings forecast cost LinkedIn 30% of its stock value the professional network is still one of the most solid companies in the social space. It has 414 million members worldwide, and 57% of traffic now comes from mobile. And by means of its ongoing acquisition strategy LinkedIn is transforming itself from simple network into a full-blown education and career hub.
Last year’s acquisition of Lynda.com is now followed by Connectifier, a two-year-old startup that helps recruiters to find the right talent. With LinkedIn profiles already being an established replacement of the classic CV, relevant additional services, like Lynda.com and Connectifier, make LinkedIn the predominant force in the career space. My guess is that one of the next acquisitions is going to be an education portfolio and certification company such as Accredible, Parchment or maybe Degreed.
Training and recruitment in the tech space are rapidly changing. Last week Flipkart, one of India’s leading ecommerce players, announced a partnership with Udacity under which Flipkart will hire new employees based only on the Nanodegree project and without any formal job interview.
LinkedIn has most parts of the puzzle in place to offer a similar service to companies. The network can already track its users’ educational journey from university to the workplace; and with Lynda.com the tracking and evaluation of ongoing education is also in place. On top of all that LinkedIn is a working social network, something Google has failed at several times.
Why Google should acquire LinkedIn
Google has dug its heels deeply into the K-12 education space through its hugely popular Chromebooks as well as services like Google Classrooms and Google Apps for Education. Scary as this idea may be, adding LinkedIn and its different acquisitions to the portfolio would turn Alphabet into the predominant player in the education and career space.
The 30% fall in stock price shows that LinkedIn still is a candidate for a takeover from an even bigger company. With Facebook still growing like weed across the globe and even nibbling away advertisement market share from Google, the acquisition of LinkedIn would help Alphabet secure two hugely interesting global markets: education and the career space.
Picture by Chrissy Wainwright via Flickr