Salesforce eyed up LinkedIn

Microsoft’s record $25.4bn acquisition of LinkedIn might have been pipped at the post by Salesforce.

The CRM-as-a-Service provider was, however, unable to compete with the huge premium Microsoft stumped up for LinkedIn. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told ReCode: "It's the season of M&A... We gave it a solid look.” He reckoned a number of big “distressed” properties are coming on the market at the moment, and are of potential interest.

Salesforce PR would not comment but, instead, pointed people to the ReCode article by way of confirmation.

LinkedIn saw $11bn wiped off its stock price earlier this year as it shares fell 43 per cent on results that came in below Wall Street analysts' expectations. LinkedIn claims to have a network of 433 million users.