[jasondemeuse]

Interesting article about Hoffman, but the title is extremely misleading. There are so many reasons why Microsoft bought LinkedIn that are more important than just getting Hoffman's expertise and a board member.

It's easy for people in tech to ignore how gigantic the CRM market is, but Microsoft has a lot invested in Dynamics and has a huge incumbent competitor in Salesforce, there's no way they could compete if they just started from scratch. However, seamless LinkedIn integration and millions of pre-filled and verified records is a huge boost and an immediate selling point. IMO it's a Hail Mary at competing with Salesforce and if they wanted Dynamics to be viable any time soon it was really their only shot.