LinkedIn Acquires Newsreader Startup Pulse

It seems as though I am getting more and more LinkedIn Invitations to Connect lately. I wonder what the sudden surge in invitations is all about? I tend to assume more and more people I know are starting to use ,or maybe LinkedIn is gaining traction in different circles. I mainly use it to apply for jobs, but as of writing this, it has been a fruitless opportunity – my employment is another story altogether. This is really more about LinkedIn and their growth.

LinkedIn recently announced it has acquired mobile news aggregation startup Pulse: “The app, which collects news articles from a range of topics chosen by users and presents them in a clean, stylish format, rose to the top of Apple’s App Store ranks just a few years ago, quickly becoming a favorite among the many newsreaders currently available. Pulse currently claims more than 30 million users globally who read more than ten million stories daily using the app.” (via)

This purchase cost LinkedIn $90 million. What this really means is the professional network makes even more moves to become a force in the online content arena and not just a place to apply for jobs or recruit employees.

LinkedIn SVP of product and user experience Deep Nishar said in a company blog post, “We believe LinkedIn can be the definitive professional publishing platform — where all professionals come to consume content and where publishers come to share their content. Pulse is a perfect complement to this vision.”

Will we be using LinkedIn in a completely different way in the near future? It seems as though we will, but I would honestly love to use it as it was originally intended first: to secure a full time job.
Image via LinkedIn