In a busy Monday, along with announcements from Apple at WWDC and gaming news from E3, both Microsoft and Symantec announced acquisition news that is meant to boost their respective solutions portfolios.
Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2B to expand its business products
Microsoft has made a big bet on LinkedIn, announcing Monday that it will spend nearly $26.2 billion in cash to purchase the enterprise-focused social networking and recruiting company.
The acquisition -- which is the largest in Microsoft's history and one of the biggest tech acquisitions ever -- will combine the world's largest enterprise-focused social network with one of the biggest enterprise software companies.
It's more than just a social play, though. In addition to LinkedIn's core professional networking product, Microsoft also gains access to products including presentation- sharing software SlideShare and professional training service Lynda.com.
One key purpose of the deal is to expand Microsoft's portfolio of software that reaches users at work, in a variety of different scenarios.
In a video accompanying the acquisition announcement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella presented a vision for productivity tools that are connected to a professional network and can help users improve at their existing jobs and find a new ones as well.
Microsoft sees a future where everyone's LinkedIn profile connects with all of their productivity apps, and automatically syncs information between Office apps. Furthermore, Microsoft plans to drive further personalization of its Cortana virtual assistant using LinkedIn information, so users can get details about upcoming meetings based on the profiles of the people they're meeting with.
LinkedIn has 433 million registered users worldwide, with 105 million of those users visiting the social network every month. Those are attractive numbers for Microsoft, especially since those people are potential customers for many of the company's products and services.
Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn's CEO, will retain control of the company's operations, and report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft says that LinkedIn will retain its brand, culture and independence after the acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of this year.
It's unclear how far that independence will stretch -- Microsoft didn't say whether it plans to leave LinkedIn's HR department independent of the company's central processes in Redmond, for example.
The news comes at a tumultuous time for LinkedIn, which has been performing poorly on Wall Street since the start of 2016. The company's fourth quarter earnings from 2015 disappointed investors, and its stock hasn't been able to recover from that precipitous drop.
It also may be a tough pill for Microsoft shareholders to swallow, considering that the company just finished writing down almost all of the value from its acquisition of Nokia in 2013. Since then, Microsoft has massively curtailed its ambitions of being a phone manufacturer and taken $8 billion in write-downs.
Microsoft's deal with LinkedIn is expected to close by the end of 2016. Microsoft will pay for the massive bill largely by taking on new debt. It has been approved by the boards of both companies, as well as by Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder who remains the company's majority shareholder.
Professor Mark Skilton, Professor of Practice in the Information Systems & Management Group of Warwick Business School said: "The acquisition makes sense in respect of Microsoft’s link with enterprise in its cloud platform and portfolio of enterprise business services, it will help Microsoft build out its enterprise services capabilities.
"The long running rumours of LinkedIn not being able to develop any new growth strategies, with its net income falling year on year from 2011, have finally come home to roost with the Microsoft acquisition of $26bn in cash.
"LinkedIn has grown a user base of 106 million active users, but compared to 310 million active Twitter users and the mighty 1.65 billion Facebook monthly users, LinkedIn has never managed to grow its commercial services in what could have been a strong enterprise market.
"LinkedIn makes two thirds of its income from talent solutions in recruiting and job market services that define it and the remainder in selling marketing solutions and premium subscriptions. It has remained the website to go to for professional networking."
Symantec fills security and CEO gaps with $4.6 billion Blue Coat buyout
Symantec has unveiled plans to acquire Blue Coat Systems for $US4.651 billion, in a move designed to bolster the tech giant’s cyber security portfolio, and fill its vacant CEO slot.
Following board of director approval, the deal is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2016, with Greg Clark, CEO of Blue Coat, set to be appointed CEO of Symantec and join the Symantec board upon closing of the transaction.
Consequently, Clark fills the role vacated by former CEO Michael Brown, who stepped down from the security vendor following a string of disappointing financial results in April.
“With this transaction, we will have the scale, portfolio and resources necessary to usher in a new era of innovation designed to help protect large customers and individual consumers against insider threats and sophisticated cybercriminals,” Symantec chairman, Dan Schulman, said.
“Together, we will be best positioned to address the ever-evolving threat landscape, the massive changes introduced by the shift to mobile and cloud, and the challenges created by regulatory and privacy concerns.
“Greg and the entire Blue Coat leadership team have done an exceptional job of strengthening, growing and scaling their business.
“In addition to a proven track record of delivering scale and profitable growth, Greg brings significant leadership experience, deep security expertise and a history of successfully integrating companies into a single portfolio; he is the right person to lead Symantec as we advance our position as the leader in cybersecurity.”
Schulman said the combined company will combine Symantec’s threat telemetry with Blue Coat’s networks and cloud security offerings to provide security solutions across hundreds of millions of endpoints and servers, and billions of email and web transactions.
As a result, Symantec will also be able to deliver security for the cloud generation of users, data and apps, for the cloud, from the cloud and to the cloud.
In addition, the combined company aims to bring together its investment in cyber R&D and threat research, spanning over 3,000 engineers and researchers, as well as nine Threat Response Centres.
“Today, Symantec keeps global enterprises, governments and individual consumers protected with solutions across threat protection, information protection and managed services,” Blue Coat CEO, Greg Clark, added.
“Likewise, Blue Coat is the trusted source for protecting billions of web transactions daily and is the clear leader in the growing cloud security market.
“Once combined, we will offer customers around the world – from large enterprises and governments to individual consumers - unrivalled threat protection and unmatched cloud security.
“With employees of Blue Coat and Symantec coming together, we will be well positioned to drive meaningful growth and push the boundaries of innovation.”
Combining cyber security practices
Clark said the combined company would have had $US4.4 billion in revenues in fiscal year 2016, of which 62 percent would come from enterprise security.
By the end of fiscal 2018, Symantec expects to realise $US550 million in run-rate cost savings, of which $US400 million will come from Symantec’s previously announced cost efficiency program.
The integration of the two companies will be led by executives from both Symantec and Blue Coat, with integration planning to begin immediately.
“With the $US150 million in expected annual net cost synergies, in addition to our previously announced $US400 million in planned net cost savings, this transaction will allow Symantec to improve our profitability while continuing to invest in innovation and drive growth,” Symantec CFO, Thomas Seifert, added.
“The acquisition is expected to be significantly accretive to our non-GAAP earnings creating meaningful value for our shareholders.
“We are reiterating our first quarter guidance and maintaining our commitment to our previously announced $5.5 billion capital return program, of which the remaining $1.3 billion will be returned by the end of the current fiscal year. We will also continue our practice of paying a quarterly dividend to our shareholders.”
In connection with the transaction, Seifert said Silver Lake has agreed to make an additional investment of $US500 million in 2.0% convertible notes due 2021 of Symantec, doubling its investment in Symantec to $1 billion.
In addition, Bain Capital has agreed to make an investment of $750 million in the convertible notes. The convertible notes are noncallable and unsecured, and have an initial conversion price of approximately $20.41 per share.
In connection with this investment, David Humphrey, a Managing Director of Bain Capital Private Equity, will be appointed to Symantec’s Board of Directors, effective at the close of the transaction.
Symantec intends to finance the transaction with cash on the balance sheet and $2.8 billion of new debt. The company is focused on paying down a significant portion of this debt within the next several years with cash on the balance sheet and through cash generation.
The transaction, which is expected to be completed in the third calendar quarter of 2016, is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals.