LinkedIn, which recently saw its valuation jump to north of $2 billion, has made its first acquisition, buying recommendation service mSpoke for an undisclosed price.
It looks like this is largely a technology buy for LinkedIn as the company looks to keep its users more engaged on the site. In a statement, LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner said, “mSpoke and LinkedIn’s shared focus on generating relevant content make this acquisition a natural fit for us. We’re actively investing in solutions that help deliver valuable professional insights to LinkedIn members.”
The site has recently bulked up on its social features, for instance, revamping its Groups feature with “Likes,” Follows and Discussions options. LinkedIn has also been building more Facebook- and Twitter-like features, first with a news feed that now takes up most of the real estate on user homepages and more recently with new link sharing options to get its users pumping news into the site.