LinkedIn has acquired Glint, a Redwood City, Calif. company that helps organizations get feedback from employees.
LinkedIn did not disclose terms of the deal in a blog post announcing the acquisition. The deal gives the business social network more insight into morale and skills at individual organizations.
Daniel Shapero, LinkedIn’s vice president of talent solutions, careers and learning, wrote that Glint has “uncovered a modern HR best practice that every company should do: Regularly gather employee feedback on work, culture and leadership.” LinkedIn is a Glint customer, and Shapero wrote that its tools give leadership teams the tools to learn about their company and take action on those insights.
In the blog post, Shapero lays out his vision for how Glint will integrate with LinkedIn:
Glint provides executives with the tools to answer questions about the health and happiness of the talent they have, while giving managers at all levels the access and insight they need to improve. Now imagine, through our combined offerings, that we can translate the specific feedback a manager gets from their employees on Glint into a personalized LinkedIn Learning experience focused on the topics that will help them improve, thus making the feedback much more actionable.
Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016, its largest acquisition yet. LinkedIn continues to operate independently, allowing it to expand its offerings both through internal project development and acquisitions.
When the deal closes in Microsoft-LinkedIn’s second fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31, Glint will operate as a team within LinkedIn. Glint CEO and founder Jim Barnett will report to Shapero, and over the next 12 to 18 months Glint teams will be integrated within LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has made a number of notable acquisitions over the years. Perhaps its most prominent was the purchase of online training site Lynda.com in 2015 for $1.5 billion. LinkedIn used the acquisition to power its LinkedIn Learning platform.
