LinkedIn, the business professional equivalent to Facebook, has announced it will acquire business audience marketing company Bizo for about $175 million, including around 10% stock and 90% cash.
Bizo offers B2B marketers products and technology that enable measureable display and social advertising programs targeted to professionals, and has operated in this capacity since 2008. LinkedIn will now be able to integrate Bizo’s technology to improve service for its 300 million worldwide users. “We have been a LinkedIn partner for a while now and it became clear that our respective missions and cultures are really well aligned,” Russell Glass, Bizo’s cofounder and CEO, said in a statement.
Upon closing the deal, many Bizo employees will join LinkedIn.
“It’s exciting for us to bring Bizo’s expertise and technology into our ecosystem,” LinkedIn SVP of product and user experience Deep Nishar said in a statement. “Our ability to integrate their B2B solutions with our content marketing products will enable us to become the most effective platform for B2B marketers to engage professionals.”
