LinkedIn To Acquire Bizo For $175M
- Written by Brian Anderson, Associate Editor
- Published in Industry News
LinkedIn has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Bizo, a business audience marketing platform provider. The deal is valued at $175 million, with 10% being paid in company stock and the remainder in cash, and is expected to close in Q3 2014.
“This gives LinkedIn another way to serve its customers, who want ways to reach B2B buyers,” said David M. Raab, Principal, Raab Associates in an interview with Demand Gen Report. “The move should also allow much better targeting by Bizo, based on LinkedIn data. And it makes it easier to do targeting on LinkedIn’s own pages.”
Raab added: “It fits into the larger pattern of tighter integration between web display advertising and other targeted marketing.”
Founded in 2008, Bizo helps marketers target prospects within professional segments, and nurture them at every stage of the buying cycle. The platform enables precise and measurable multi-channel marketing programs using data management and targeting technology.
While Bizo’s Media Solutions and Multi-Channel Nurturing products will be folded into LinkedIn’s offerings, the company doesn’t plan to carry over its Data Solutions business, according to David Thacker, VP of Product at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.
Thacker added in a recent blog: “It’s our goal to integrate Bizo’s offerings into our content marketing products to become a more powerful tool for brands that want to build stronger relationships with professionals.”
The announcement stated that Bizo will honor any ongoing partnerships with customers using their data solutions technology.
“LinkedIn’s mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, while Bizo’s is to help B2B marketers get to the right people,” Bizo co-founder and CEO Russell Glass said in a company blog post. “We realized that our respective missions are incredibly well aligned, and we believe that combining forces will accelerate our ability to execute against the huge opportunities ahead.
Glass added: “the combination of LinkedIn and Bizo greatly increases our ability to be the most effective platform for B2B marketers to reach their audiences, nurture prospects and acquire customers.”
Click here to view a SlideShare detailing the announcement.