LinkedIn forgoes SlideShare

LinkedIn forgoes SlideShare to focus on more premium services

by | Aug 12, 2020 | Deal, UC & C

Eight years after acquiring the presentation sharing platform, LinkedIn has let go of SlideShare in a move that allows it to get more premium focused.
Share to lead the transformation

In a significant development, SlideShare, LinkedIn’s presentation-sharing service platform, has been acquired by Scribd, a digital library giant, for an undisclosed amount. As LinkedIn forgoes SlideShare, it also undoes the acquisition done eight years ago. The deal with Scribd is likely to be completed by September this year.

SlideShare has been part of LinkedIn since May 2012 and has helped LinkedIn users increase knowledge and share best practices in areas such as marketing, sales, and digital transformation, among others.

“On September 24, Scribd will begin operating the SlideShare business, its 100 million users, along with its presentation upload and hosting tools, and tremendous archive of presentations and documents,” said LinkedIn in an official statement.

Launched in October 2006, SlideShare has been considered as the YouTube of slideshows by the tech industry. LinkedIn acquired the SlideShare platform in 2012 for $119 million. At that time, LinkedIn said that the acquisition would enable it to deliver more value to its users who can share their experiences and knowledge in the form of various documents, videos, and presentations. Later, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in 2016 as part of a wider UC&C strategy.

Through its blog post, LinkedIn has informed that existing SlideShare users can continue to access their account with the current login information. Post transition, Scribd will manage the existing SlideShare accounts as per their terms and conditions.

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A good fit in Scribd’s portfolio?

Scribd has been on an expansion spree for the last few years. The company was launched in 2007 with a sole focus on document-sharing service and then added an e-book subscription service in 2013. Over the years, it started sharing almost everything under the skin on its digital platform.

By acquiring SlideShare, Scribd will be able to further diversify its offerings to users. The company currently has over 100 million digital assets, including audiobooks, music, e-magazines, podcasts, and e-books, hosted on its platform. Now, with SlideShare purchase, it will further expand its portfolio in professional content and presentation space as well.

Last year, the company had raised $58 million from growth firm Spectrum Equity for its expansion and growth plans.

“Our acquisition of SlideShare is a major step towards creating the world’s largest digital library,” said Trip Adler, co-founder and CEO of Scribd. He further elucidated that the acquisition will enable Scribd to continue to diversify offering while driving even more readers to the books, audiobooks, magazines, and other professionally published works in its digital library.

LinkedIn does away with a misfit?

As LinkedIn forgoes SlideShare, the move seems to be in line with its future strategy of focusing on its premium services for the next level of growth. For the first few years, the professional networking site wanted to build a repository of contacts senior executives, enabling real-world professional relationships. At that time, it offered almost everything for free without concentrating on revenues. However, with over 700 million registered members in 150 countries, it is now majorly focusing on premium services with a monthly subscription model. Some of the key services it has been offering under its premium plans include In Mails, premium insights, online training, among others.

SlideShare, for all the reasons, has not been aligning well with LinkedIn’s long-term plans. First, it was a free service where everyone could share and distribute professional content, which may or may not have been attributed to genuine authors.

Second, through its verified training courses and downloadable resources, it can strategically focus on building exclusive content repositories for its premium users. In future, virtual platforms will likely become more mainstream mediums to learn, collaborate, and share.

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Climate Change: Javadekar takes charge

Climate Change: Javadekar takes charge

Prakash Javadekar today assumed charge as the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change here today. He was greeted at the office at Paryavaran Bhawan by Environment Secretary Shri C K Mishra and other senior officials of the ministry. Babul Supriyo also assumed charge as Minister of State.

Briefing the media after assuming the charge, the Union Minister said it is like a home coming for him as he already served in the ministry for two years in the first term of NDA government. He stressed that we will strongly reinforce that this ministry is seen as a facilitator and not merely as a regulator. “Economic growth and environment protection should go simultaneously, and we need to work with an increased impetus towards that”, said Javadekar.

After assuming the charge, the Minister also held a meeting with the senior officers of the Ministry where he was briefed on the key initiatives and policy issues of the Ministry.

Infosys Foundation Opens Aarohan Awards 2019

Infosys Foundation Opens Aarohan Awards 2019

social-impact

The awards would recognize solutions that could positively impact the underprivileged in India. (Representative image)

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys, has announced the launch of the second edition of the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards. The award is aimed at accelerating innovation in the social sector. The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2019 seek to recognize and reward individuals, teams or NGOs developing unique solutions that have the potential to positively impact the underprivileged in India, at scale.

Speaking at the launch of the second edition of the awards, Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty said, “The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2018 was a huge success. Infosys Foundation witnessed a very good response from social innovators across the country and eventually, 12 leading innovators were recognised and awarded. The overwhelming response we got last year, has reaffirmed my belief that there are innumerable innovators across India who are looking up to this platform to give wings to their passion by scaling their innovation and impacting millions of lives. With the second edition of the awards, we hope to discover these hidden social innovators across the country and help them scale the power of their social innovations”

The awards will accept submissions across six categories, namely, Healthcare, Rural Development, Destitute Care, Women’s Safety & Empowerment, Education & Sports, and Sustainability.

The submission process for the second edition of these awards commences on July 15, 2019 and will continue till September 30, 2019. Participants can submit entries describing their work in the form of videos that can be uploaded on the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards website. The entries must be of a fully functioning prototype, not just a concept, idea or mock up. Additionally, the project must not be an established commercial venture.

Aarohan Social Innovation Awards will also offer winners an opportunity for residential technical mentorship at the IIT Hyderabad campus for up to 12 weeks to help them further develop and scale their solutions.

A panel of distinguished judges will evaluate and select the winners whose submissions will be assessed on five broad criteria – application to a social problem or need, innovative use of technology, originality of ideas, ease of use and the quality of presentation. The jury will comprise Prof. Trilochan Sastry, former Dean, IIM Bangalore; Padma Shree Arvind Gupta, an Indian toy inventor and science expert; Prof. Anil Gupta, visiting faculty member, IIM Ahmedabad, a globally renowned scholar of grassroots innovations and founder of the Honey Bee Network; Prof. GVV Sharma, Faculty member of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Coordinator, Teaching Learning Centre, IIT Hyderabad; Sumit Virmani, Senior Vice President and Global Head – Marketing, Infosys, and Infosys Foundation Chairperson, renowned author and philanthropist Sudha Murty.

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