Microsoft Buys Linked In For $26B; Gets Approval From EU Already

Microsoft has now successfully acquired the famous professional-networking website, LinkedIn. They have finally received the blessing from the European Union to make the purchase.

EU Approves Clearance For Microsoft To Acquire Linked In; Account To Be Closed Soon

Since the announcement was made in June back in June, Microsoft needed clearance from many countries in order to acquire LinkedIn. For the past few months, it has been cleared with US, Canada, and Brazil over the past few months. Just recently, it has been cleared with the last one on the list, the European Commission in order to successfully acquire the professional-networking site. Thus, the European Commission has given Microsoft its approval for $26.2 billion under several conditions; one of which to continually allow rival networking sites to participate in its Office applications and other services for the next five years.

Conditions Set For Microsoft To Level Playing Field Against LinkedIn Competitors

The commitments needed to be made by Microsoft were announced by its President and Chief Legal Office Brad Smith, via the internet. In a post constructed by Smith, they were conditioned to support third-party professional-social networking services, pertaining to keeping the Microsoft Office open to its competitors. Initially,, Microsoft has targeted to acquire LinkedIn by the end of the year, and indeed they successfully did. According to the post made by Smith, the account will be closed in the next coming days. The official announcement shall be made once all papers are in and signed by all parties already.

In line with the conditions stated in acquiring LinkedIn, Microsoft will allow other social networks to access Microsoft Graph, and the one-stop API portals among many others. According to a statement made by the European Commission, they are afraid that Microsoft acquiring LinkedIn solely would make it hard for new comers to provide professional social network services in the European Economic Area. Thus, EU regulators are convinced that the conditions they have set for Microsoft would level the playing field in the world of professional network services.