Following Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn last year, many wondered what would come next for the leading professional social network. In the months following the acquisition, we learned that Microsoft would work to integrate LinkedIn to some of its products including Windows, Office and Dynamics, though the Redmond giant explained that the professional network would continue to operate independently.
But if LinkedIn can continue to focus on growth for now, does Microsoft plans to interfere with the ambitious data center plans that the company announced last year? According to recent comments from Microsoft CFO Amy Hood made during the company’s earnings call last week, the company won’t push its new subsidiary to move to Azure in the short term (via DataCenterKnowledge). The exec explained:
Over time of course I’m sure they’ll want to take advantage – as we build new services together – of some of our infrastructure assets. But in the short term, the most important thing is that they continue to add value and usage and great experience for their members. And so I have really no intention of messing with that in terms of capital expenditures in the short term and next six months for sure.
It’s worth noting that this won’t be the first time that Microsoft takes a hands-off approach with one of its big acquisitions. As a reminder, it took the company years to move Skype from a peer to peer infrastructure to an Azure-based one. But if a transition to Azure is currently not on the table for a LinkedIn, the company may still move to the Microsoft Cloud in slightly a different way, by becoming a new Office 365 customer.
