LinkedIn users will soon be able to co-author documents on Office 365 programs with their contacts on the business social network, in one of the newest and deepest integrations since Microsoft acquired the company.
The move is meant to bring together users’ company directories and LinkedIn networks. The new integration will let people email their LinkedIn contacts through Outlook and work together on documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
LinkedIn’s wealth of data will also be integrated into meeting invitations, so users can quickly learn details about people they are connecting with. Microsoft didn’t give an exact release date for these new features, saying only that they are “coming soon in a staged rollout.”
Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion was the biggest buy in the company’s history. Since the acquisition, the combined companies have been steadily rolling out integrations like using Bing to add commute information to job postings.
LinkedIn is one of Microsoft’s fastest-growing businesses. In the most recent quarter, LinkedIn revenue grew 37 percent to $1.46 billion, and the company took an operating loss of $182 million, down from $353 million a year ago.
