Microsoft to buy LinkedIn for $26.2B, healthcare wonders what the future holds

So what does that mean for healthcare? Probably not much in the near term, but there could be some interesting ideas coming in the future.

Microsoft-Linkedin-2016-06-12

Monday, Microsoft shocked the tech world by announcing plans to acquire business networking site LinkedIn for an eye-popping $26.2 billion in cash. At $196 per share, that’s 50 percent higher than Friday’s closing stock price — though still a bargain compared to what the price would have been back in the winter.

Why? It’s about Microsoft gaining a greater foothold in enterprise services, as TechCrunch explained:

For Microsoft, it’s bringing a key, missing piece into the company’s strategy to build out more services for enterprises, and give it a key way to compete better against the likes of Salesforce (which it also reportedly tried to buy).

Today, Microsoft is focused squarely on software (and some hardware by way of its very downsized phones business). But LinkedIn will give Microsoft a far bigger reach in terms of social networking services and professional content — developing the early signs of enterprise social networking that it kicked off with its acquisition of Yammer for $1.2 billion in 2012.

LinkedIn’s wider social network, pegged as it is to groups of employees and employers, will give Microsoft a sales channel to sell more of its products, and will serve as a complement to those that it already offers for collaboration and communication.

So what does that mean for healthcare? Probably not much in the near term.

“I am not sure it will make an impact on groups, but that depends on what Microsoft has in mind for the platform,” Paul Sonnier, curator of the hugely popular Digital Health group on LinkedIn, said in an email.

Posts and comments compiled from our own social media networks included:

  • No impact right away but it’s obvious that LinkedIn has been evolving to more of a mainstream social platform. I could see, in the near future, a social network just for life science people.
  • If we look historically, Skype and Minecraft has remained essentially the same.
  • The groups on LinkedIn have deep discussions and by mining those discussions, MSFT would be ahead of other vendors in any industry it wants to lead in. For instance, just by looking at HIMSS, HISTalk etc, they can see themes emerging beyond interoperability noise giving them 5 years headstart.
  • As suggested in the previous comments, MS has left these companies alone as I would presume that’s why they are buying them in the first. After years of changing acquired companies, and seeing them disappear, I would think the lesson is learned.
  • Good news is LinkedIn won’t need a culture shift to fit the miserable trap style user experience we expect from Microsoft. ????????????
  • Linkedin can only go up from here in my opinion. The UI and features stink and the benefits of paid services are negligible unless perhaps you are a recruiter.
  • Great move for Microsoft and LinkedIn. Google will probably take another serious look at Twitter.

Looking deeper, there could be some interesting ideas coming in the future.

The care coordination and cloud workflow ideas certainly fit with the earlier report that Microsoft had wanted to buy Salesforce, which is making a big push into healthcare.

Stephanie Baum contributed to this story.

Photo: Microsoft

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