LinkedIn Acquires Pulse For $90m Stock And Cash

While normally an acquisition like this would have a title devoid of the "stock and cash" bit, the LinkedIn purchase of Pulse is a bit more unique. Here the $90 million USD has been announced to be about 90% made up of stock options while the other 10% is made of cash. LinkedIn has made it clear in their announcement of this acquisition that they believe LinkedIn can be "the definitive professional publishing platform" and that Pulse is "a perfect compliment to this vision."

For those of you that are big fans of Pulse, you'll be able to rest easy (for now) knowing that Pulse – in all its iterations – will be safely supported through the future. From what we're hearing out of both camps, it would appear that the Pulse apps on iOS and Android will be supported for the foreseeable future while the Pulse team is folded into LinkedIn's team where they'll bring something brand new to the table.

The Pulse experience will continue to be supported, while we work together on new and innovative ways to publish, discover, and share your professional knowledge."

What's unclear at the moment is what the final product of this purchase will be – the Pulse team will become part of LinkedIn, and they've suggested that they're going to create something new. The language is a bit hazy, on the other hand, with the following being part of the core of this new situation:

We want to be the definitive professional publishing platform where all professionals can Publish, Discover, Share.

Publish updates, comments, presentations.

Discover Influencers, Groups, news, Company Pages.

Share, like and comment.

As LinkedIn puts it, Pulse will be bringing a "unique combination of product, technology, and design expertise" to the LinkedIn brand. Pulse, on the other hand, is celebrating by adding a new LinkedIn Influencer feed on the Pulse app and ecosystem.

"LinkedIn is the perfect partner as we continue our journey. The company shares our passions and values, our belief in the power of knowledge and elevated discussion, particularly for professionals looking for insights to help make them better at what they do. We believe this important step is the key to an even better experience for our community, and we're excited for what's to come." – Pulse

Sound reasonable to you? It'll be interesting to see how LinkedIn makes use of the Pulse developers and if Pulse will, indeed, stick around for the long haul. We expect LinkedIn to be beefed up with some graphic design and user interface savvy, that's for certain.