LinkedIn was already very FCF positive. They tightly managed margins to get to net income positive (account for dilution and so on) but it took maybe 2 years after the acquisition.
Of course, they were and are healthy company, i was just trying to say they while very healthy it was not so profitable that just by using the free cash flow MS could have grown the business to today's size, it likely required external cash infusion and therefore $26 Billion is likely not the only money MS has spent on Linkedin.
As far as M&As go, it is very successful outcome, vast majority of them fail spectacularly, RoI is not perhaps the right metric to judge a strategic acquisition.
manquer|2 years ago
As far as M&As go, it is very successful outcome, vast majority of them fail spectacularly, RoI is not perhaps the right metric to judge a strategic acquisition.