Microsoft walked away with LinkedIn for $26.2 billion this week, but Salesforce had also expressed interest in buying the business-oriented social media company.
We gave it a solid look, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Recode s executive editor Kara Swisher in an interview. We are always looking to help our customers in new ways.
Salesforce made a bid for the company, but by that time, Microsoft was already in deep negotiations to buy LinkedIn.
Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, also reported that Salesforce was a rival bidder for LinkedIn and that the tech firm hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to advise them on the negotiations. The San Francisco cloud computing company was interested in LinkedIn s data on working professionals to help improve tools that help customers close sales deal, Bloomberg reported.
On Monday, Microsoft said that the purchase of LinkedIn would help them grow their office and business software tools. Some analysts said the deal could also help Microsoft compete against Salesforce, another major provider for enterprise software.
LinkedIn s stock closed up .01 percent Thursday at $191.33 per share. Salesforce s stock closed down 0.43 percent at $81.64 per share.
Photo Credit: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff delivers a keynote address during the 2014 DreamForce conference on October 14, 2014 in San Francisco, California. The annual Dreamforce conference runs through October 16. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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