Lynda.com

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning

Online education company

LinkedIn Learning is an American online learning platform. It provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills. It is a subsidiary of LinkedIn. All the courses on LinkedIn fall into four categories: Business, Creative, Technology, and Certifications.

Quick Facts Formerly, Company type ...

It was founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman as Lynda.com before being acquired by LinkedIn in 2015 and becoming LinkedIn Learning.[2] Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in December 2016.[3]

History

LinkedIn Learning was founded as Lynda.com in 1995 in Ojai, California, as online support for the books and classes of Lynda Weinman, a special effects animator and multimedia professor who founded a digital arts school with her husband, artist Bruce Heavin.[4]

In 2002, the company began offering courses online.[5] By 2004, there were 100 courses, and in 2008, the company began producing and publishing documentaries on creative leaders, artists, and entrepreneurs.[6]

In 2013, Lynda.com received its first outside investment, raising $103 million (~$133 million in 2023) in growth equity from Accel Partners and Spectrum Equity, with additional contributions from Meritech Capital Partners.[7] On January 14, 2015, Lynda.com announced it had raised $186 million (~$234 million in 2023) in financing, led by investment group TPG Capital.[8]

On April 9, 2015, LinkedIn announced its intention to buy Lynda.com in a deal valued at $1.5 billion, which officially closed on May 14, 2015.[9]

In 2016, Lynda.com began to broadcast courses on their Apple TV application.[10]

On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Lynda.com's parent company LinkedIn for $26.2 billion (~$32.6 billion in 2023). The acquisition was completed on December 8, 2016.[11][12][13]

In October 2017, Lynda.com was merged and renamed LinkedIn Learning.[14] In 2019, the site announced that users accessing LinkedIn Learning through their public library would be required to create a LinkedIn profile in order to use the service; the decision faced criticism from librarians and the American Library Association.[15][16][17] As of March 2021, libraries started migrating to LinkedIn Learning without requiring patrons to create a LinkedIn profile.[18]

On June 2, 2021, the lynda.com site was shutdown and is now permanently redirects to LinkedIn Learning.[19]

Acquisitions

In February 2013, Lynda.com acquired video2brain, an Austrian-based provider of online classes in web design and programming, available in German, French, Spanish, and English.[20]

On April 7, 2014, Lynda.com purchased Canadian startup Compilr, provider of an online editor and sandbox.[21]

Service details

LinkedIn Learning is a subscription service that costs $40/month or $25/month if paid annually (as of 2021). It has a catalog of 16,000+ courses and learning paths.[19]

References

  1. [1]
    "Lynda.com Lands $103 Million in Biggest Education Financing". Bloomberg. 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  2. [2]
    Larson, Selena (2013-12-03). "Lynda.com Founder: I Was Educating Online Before Online Education Was Cool". ReadWrite. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
  3. [3]
    "LinkedIn CEO: Here's Why I Sold the Company to Microsoft". Time.com.
  4. [4]
    Roush, Wade (2013-03-28). "Knowledge When You Need It: Lynda.com and the Rise of Online Education". Xconomy.
  5. [5]
    Singel, Ryan (2011-06-17). "A Paywall That Pays Off: How Lynda.com Broke All the Rules and Won". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
  6. [6]
    Meyer, Stephen J. (2015-05-12). "LinkedIn's Blockbuster Deal With Lynda.com: What It Means To The Online Learning Industry". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
  7. [7]
    Empson, Rip (2013-01-15). "After 17 Years, Education Platform Lynda.com Raises Its First Round of Funding, $103M From Accel & Spectrum". TechCrunch.
  8. [8]
    Singer, Natasha (2015-01-14). "Investors Put $186 Million Into Lynda.com, an Online Tutorial Service". Bits Blog. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
  9. [9]
    Roslansky, Ryan (2015-04-09). "Welcome to the LinkedIn Family, lynda.com". blog.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  10. [10]
    Yeung, Ken (2016-04-21). "LinkedIn makes all Lynda.com courses available on Apple TV". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
  11. [11]
    "Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn | News Center" (Press release). Microsoft. June 13, 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-13. Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corporation on Monday announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for $16 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion, inclusive of LinkedIn's net cash.
  12. [12]
    Greene, Jay (2016-06-14). "Microsoft to Acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
  13. [13]
    Weiner, Jeff (2016-12-08). "LinkedIn + Microsoft: Our Next Play Begins". LinkedIn.
  14. [14]
    "Upgrading from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning". Lynda.com - from LinkedIn. 2017-10-20. Archived from the original on 2020-09-21. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  15. [15]
    Foley, Mary Jo (August 22, 2019). "Microsoft is moving Lynda.com users to LinkedIn Learning and not everyone's happy about it". ZDNet. Retrieved 2019-08-26.
  16. [16]
    Cimpanu, Catalin (July 23, 2019). "American Library Association blasts LinkedIn for intrusive ToS changes". ZDNet. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  17. [17]
    Elias, Jennifer (28 August 2019). "Why librarians are up in arms against LinkedIn". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  18. [18]
    "LinkedIn Learning for Library – Patron FAQ". Learning Help. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  19. [19]
    Shah, Dhawal (2021-07-12). "LinkedIn Sunsets Lynda.com and Fully Transitions to LinkedIn Learning". The Report by Class Central. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  20. [20]
    Heussner, Ki Mae (2013-02-13). "Flush with cash, lynda.com buys European online learning site video2brain". Gigaom. Archived from the original on 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
  21. [21]
    Lunden, Ingrid (2014-04-07). "E-Learning Platform Buys Compilr To Add In-Browser Coding Tools, Price Around $20M". TechCrunch.
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