Microsoft Corp.-owned LinkedIn Corp. has made another acquisition, buying a digital identity management company called Drawbridge Inc. for an undisclosed price. LinkedIn said that it plans to use Drawbridge’s technology to improve its Marketing Solutions tools, which are used by marketers to create ads, generate leads and drive website traffic.
Founded in 2011, Drawbridge uses internally developed machine learning technology, a subset of artificial intelligence, that helps companies better understand their customers. Its software is focused on issues such as customer experiences and identity, digital security and risk detection. The company had raised $69 million via five funding rounds prior to being acquired by LinkedIn.
LinkedIn said in a blog post the plan is for Drawbridge to help its marketing customers “better reach and understand their professional audiences and measure the ROI of their campaigns across mobile and desktop.”
One potentially useful factor is that Drawbridge’s tools can integrate with a number of marketing platforms and personalization systems, including those sold by companies such as Adobe Inc., Oracle Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc.
Microsoft appears to have left LinkedIn largely to do its own thing since buying it for a massive $26.6 billion back in 2016, and today’s acquisition is the business-oriented networking site’s fourth since being taken over. Its most recent acquisition prior to this was a workforce analytics company called Glint Inc., which sells tools that provide insights into employee sentiment and cost around $400 million when it was snapped up in October.
Source: Siliconangle.com
