領英15億美元收購Lynda.com

LinkedIn is to acquire the online learning business for about $1.5bn, as the social network expands offerings for its audience of professional users.

領英(LinkedIn)將斥資約15億美元，收購在線學習網站，試圖以此向由職業用戶組成的受衆羣提供更多服務。

, a California-based company, has created hundreds of thousands of video tutorials in multiple languages, helping people to learn “software, technology, creative and business skills to achieve personal and professional goals”. Users pay a subscription of up to $375 a year to gain access to online courses that have been created by more than 1,000 authors.

總部駐美國加利福尼亞州，以多種語言製作了數以十萬計的視頻教學指導資料，幫助人們學習“軟件、科技、創造力及商業方面的技能，以實現個人目標及專業目標”。用戶每年支付最高375美元的註冊費，就能訪問由逾千名作者製作的在線課程。

Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn, said the companies “are highly aligned . . . both companies seek to help professionals be better at what they do”.

領英首席執行官傑夫•韋納(Jeff Weiner)表示，兩家公司“具有極大的合作空間……它們都試圖幫助職場人士在各自的領域提升自己”。

He said the companies “believe strongly that the growing skills gap is one of the biggest challenges to the future of the global economy”.

他說，兩家公司“堅信，人們的技能與需求間不斷加大的差距，是未來全球經濟面臨的最大挑戰之一”。

Lynda’s courses will be integrated with the LinkedIn site. For example, a jobseeker might be able to use the site to discover what skills are needed for the open vacancies in his or her city, and be prompted to take a relevant course.

合併後，Lynda網站的課程將被整合進領英網站。比如，求職者或許能通過領英，瞭解所在城市的空缺職位需要什麼技能，並馬上學習相關課程。

Though was founded in 1995 as a small school in Pasadena, California, and later a learn-by-video business, the company secured the vast majority of its nearly $290m of investment in the past two years.

網站於1995年創立於加州帕薩迪納市，最初只是個規模很小的學校，後來發展成視頻教學企業。儘管起步時並不起眼，但它已獲得2.9億美元投資，絕大部分是在過去兩年中獲得的。

Existing investors include Silicon Valley venture capital groups Accel Partners and Meritech Capital Partners, as well as US private equity groups TPG and Spectrum Equity.

該公司現有投資者包括硅谷風險投資集團阿塞爾夥伴公司(Accel Partners)和美瑞泰科資本合夥公司(Meritech Capital Partners)，以及美國私募股權集團TPG和光譜投資(Spectrum Equity)。

Lynda Weiman, co-founder and executive chair of , said all of LinkedIn’s 350m members could potentially benefit from the “self-paced study of new skills” that her business offers.

網站共同創始人兼執行董事長林達•韋曼(Lynda Weiman)表示，領英的3.5億用戶都有機會從提供的“自主學習新技能”的服務中受益。

“The skills gap is one of the leading social issues of our time — technology changes fast and people need to keep their skills up to date,” she said in a blogpost.

她在一篇博客文章中表示：“在我們這個時代，技能欠缺是首當其衝的社會問題之一——科技變化太快，人們需要及時更新他們的技能。”

“We have a shared vision of connecting relevant knowledge to those in need of new or stronger skills.”

“我們兩家公司都有同樣的願景，要在重要的知識和那些需要新技能或更強技能的人羣間搭建橋樑。”

’s revenue last year was about $150m, with two-thirds coming from individual subscriptions and one-third from enterprise customers. The company’s compound annual growth rate has been about 40 per cent since 2001 and it has more than 500 employees worldwide.

去年，網站的營收約爲1.5億美元，其中三分之二來自個人註冊用戶，三分之一來自企業客戶。自2001年以來，該公司複合年增長率約40%，目前在全球擁有逾500名員工。

More than 5m licences have been sold to enterprise and professional users with customers including more than half of the Fortune 50, all of the US military and all of the Ivy League colleges.

該網站已向企業用戶和專業用戶出售了逾500萬份使用許可證，其中包括逾半數的《財富》(Fortune)雜誌50強企業、美國全部軍事院校和全部常青藤院校。

LinkedIn will pay through a combination of about 52 per cent cash and 48 per cent stock. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter.

領英將通過現金和換股方式完成這一收購，其中現金佔52%，股票佔48%。收購預計在今年第二季度完成。

The $1.5bn acquisition is LinkedIn’s largest. Its second-largest deal was the $175m acquisition of Bizo, a business to business marketing platform last year, and $120m for job-matching site Bright in February 2014.

這筆規模15億美元的交易是領英歷史上最大規模的收購交易。該公司第二大併購交易則是去年收購B2B市場平臺Bizo的交易，規模爲1.75億美元。此外，該公司還曾在2014年2月斥資1.2億美元收購求職網站Bright。