LinkedIn, the social network for careerists, whose $53 million funding round in June valued the company at $1 billion, has agreed to swap content with business news broadcaster CNBC.
The deal, announced Thursday, will feed CNBC’s articles, data and video to LinkedIn’s 27 million users, while allowing CNBC to tap LinkedIn users as participants in surveys and on-air question-and-answer sessions with reporters and newsmakers. CNBC.com, the network’s online unit, will integrate LinkedIn’s network functions.
The agreement extends CNBC’s audience at a time it is seeking to fend off a challenge from the Fox Business Network launched earlier this year by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. LinkedIn, meanwhile, has seen rival social network Facebook evolve from a refuge for college students to an online site that increasingly accommodates mid-career professionals.
The tie-in is the latest effort by LinkedIn to broaden its content through media partnerships. In July, LinkedIn cut a deal that gives users access to personalized industry news from The New York Times that can be shared with a social network.
In June, LinkedIn nabbed a $53 million series D venture found that implied a $1 billion valuation. At the time, Chief Executive Dan Nye told CNBC that the company “very likely” will stage an initial public offering, but at a price far beyond $1 billion.
LinkedIn, based in Mountain View, California, is backed by A-list venture capitalists and angel investors, including Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Marc Andreesen, founder of Netscape.
Mr. Nye took over as chief executive in February 2007, replacing founder Reid Hoffman, who remains as chairman. Mr. Nye is a veteran of consumer products company Procter & Gamble and finance software maker Intuit.
In 2007, Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook that implied a $15 billion valuation for that social-networking site. That deal, however, was considered a strategic investment for Microsoft and made the Redmond, Washington, company the exclusive third-party advertising platform for Facebook.
CNBC is a unit of media, financial and industrial conglomerate General Electric.