LinkedIN paid almost the same price for Slideshare than the Scream (a painting by Norwegian Edvard Munch) that sold on auction yesterday for R927,6 million (to a Qatar national)
LinkedIn paid only R919,87 million rands for Slideshare and it is difficult to judge whether the Qatar national or LinkedIn bought the better bargain as both are fairly cool.
LinkedIn is often the forgotten stepsister of Cinderella. (Cinderella has three step sisters, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – You do know that Cinderella is Google, right?)
This stepsister is stepping it up with this acquisition as LinkedIn will see a thirty percent increase in unique monthly hits, which makes it a delightful morsel of great value to advertisers.
There is also a very strategic result with this purchase, strategy which will place LinkedIn in a stronger position for member and future growth as Slideshare is extremely well supported in the business presentation market. The Slideshare userbase consists of a large percentage of users that do not have LinkedIn accounts.
The LinkedIn stepsister has now come of age and demands serious attention as well as consideration regarding social business networking dominance.
Cinderella, after the fairy Godmother creates the pumpkin coach and transforms Cinderella into a ball going beauty (after Google 2.0), will have to deal with a more powerful stepsister, specially so when the prince comes around with the glass slipper.
But that is another tale.