![]() The day after that, they have a similar call with Google. The next day, they have a similar call with Microsoft and its advisors. April 12, 2016: Linkedin management, Sonsini and Qatalyst hold a due diligence call with Salesforce and its advisors.Month 3: Full-on negotiations LinkedIn holds due diligence calls It’s officially Salesforce vs Microsoft vs Google! April 1, 2016: Hoffman reaches out to Facebook to gauge interest.(Party C informs Qatalyst it’s not interested 2 weeks later.)įacebook dips its toe, but the water’s too cold March 22, 2016: Qatalyst reaches out to another potential buyer (Party C) to gauge interest.(LinkedIn adds Allen & Co as a secondary advisor a month later.) March 18, 2016: LinkedIn brings in Wilson Sonsini as legal counsel and chooses Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners as its investment banker 4 days later.Qatalyst Partners founder Frank Quattrone Linkedin selects Qatalyst and Wilson Sonsini ![]() After the meeting, the Google executive seeks out separate meetings to be held later in the month with Hoffman and Weiner in order to discuss a potential acquisition. March 12, 2016: Linkedin’s controlling shareholder Reid Hoffman has a previously scheduled meeting with a senior executive from Party B (Google).A week later, Benioff tells Weiner that Salesforce has hired a financial advisor to analyze the potential acquisition ( turns out it was Goldman, who bet on the wrong horse). Several days later, Weiner meets with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff about the potential deal. March 10, 2016: Nearly a month after the Weiner/Nadella discussion, Party A (Salesforce) requests a meeting with Weiner to float the idea of acquiring LinkedIn.February 16, 2016: Linkedin CEO Jeffrey Weiner and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discuss a potential merger for the first time.Parties B and D were rumored to be Google and Facebook, respectively. LinkedIn also began to entertain inquiries from 4 other potential suitors, which the proxy called “Parties, A, B, C and D.” The most serious other bidder was Party A, widely rumored in the press to be Salesforce. 3 suitors have first dates with LinkedIn in February and March This appears to have started LinkedIn’s exploration of a formal sales process. At the meeting, they discussed how the two companies could work together more closely, and the concept of a business combination was raised. On that day, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to discuss ways to enhance the ongoing commercial relationship between the companies. It all started on February 16, 2016, 4 months prior to the deal announcement, with the first formal discussion between the two companies. Use the form below to download our free M&A E-Book: Before we continue… Download the M&A E-Book There are some great books that detail the behind-the scenes-drama of major deals, but you don’t have to pull out your Kindle to get the scoop on how things played out for public deals Much of the negotiation detail is presented in the surprisingly engaging “ background of the merger” section of the merger proxy.īelow is a behind-the-scenes look at the Microsoft-LinkedIn merger, courtesy of the LinkedIn merger proxy. That said, getting a deal done remains a very human (and therefore entertaining) process. Models are built, due diligence is performed, and fairness opinions are presented to the board. M&A transactions can get complicated, with no shortage of legal, tax and accounting issues to sort out. Facebook dips its toe, but the water’s too cold.Linkedin selects Qatalyst and Wilson Sonsini.3 suitors have first dates with LinkedIn in February and March.Before we continue… Download the M&A E-Book.
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