LinkedIn Corp. is spending $175 million to buy Bizo, a provider of advertising technology and measurement services aimed at professionals.
LinkedIn said Tuesday that it is paying 90% in cash and the rest in stock for San Francisco-based Bizo. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. Founded in 2008, Bizo lets marketers target professionals with ads they want them to see, and helps measure the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.
Linkedin has been focused on enhancing its B2B marketing platform including launching sponsored updates last year. “It’s our goal to integrate Bizo’s offerings into our content marketing products to become a more powerful tool for brands that want to build stronger relationships with professionals,” said David Thacker, Linkedin’s vice-president of product in a post at Linkedin’s marketing solutions blog.
LinkedIn has more than 300 million users.
“LinkedIn’s mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, while Bizo’s is to help B2B marketers get to the right people,” said Bizo CEO Russell Glass in a post on the Bizo blog. “We realized that our respective missions are incredibly well aligned, and we believe that combining forces will accelerate our ability to execute against the huge opportunities ahead. The combination of LinkedIn and Bizo greatly increases our ability to be the most effective platform for B2B marketers to reach their audiences, nurture prospects and acquire customers.”
The deal comes a day after Yahoo Inc. announced that it is buying Flurry Inc., which helps companies make mobile apps and design mobile ad campaigns.
