Who Owns LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, which bought it in 2016 for a reported $26.2bn. Companies House dates the handover to the day: Microsoft Corporation was recorded as controller of the UK company on 8 December 2016, replacing co-founder Reid Hoffman, who had held a majority of the votes through a trust. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Linkedin today?

LinkedIn Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. It is not listed separately, has no outside shareholders, and cannot be bought without buying Microsoft.

The British company is LINKEDIN TECHNOLOGY UK LIMITED (06441873), incorporated 30 November 2007 and previously named LinkedIn Europe Limited. Its person with significant control is Microsoft Corporation (Washington, 600413485), holding 75% or more of shares and voting rights.

Searching Companies House for LinkedIn is close to useless. The register carries dozens of unrelated businesses named after the platform — LinkedIn Removals, LinkedIn Virtual Assistance, LinkedIn Fox, LinkedIn with Lindsey, LinkedIn Elite — set up by consultants and traders who work on it. Only 06441873 belongs to the company.

Ultimate parent and corporate structure

Microsoft Corporation is the ultimate parent and has no owner of its own: it is listed on Nasdaq with a single class of stock and no controlling shareholder, as this site’s Microsoft profile sets out.

So the chain is unusually short — LinkedIn UK, LinkedIn Corporation, Microsoft, and then the market. There is no founder block, no dual-class structure and no holding company maze.

Major shareholders or controlling persons

LinkedIn itself has none beyond Microsoft. Microsoft’s own largest holders are the index managers — Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street — each with a mid-single-digit percentage held for the investors in their funds.

Reid Hoffman, who co-founded LinkedIn in 2002, no longer has any ownership of it. He sold with everyone else in 2016 and is now known for his venture investing and his board roles elsewhere in technology.

Official records and evidence

The UK register is unusually informative here, because it recorded the founder’s control before the sale rather than only the buyer after it.

Hoffman’s ceased entry reads: ownership of voting rights, more than 50% but less than 75%, with control over the trustees of a trust, notified 6 April 2016 and ceased 8 December 2016.

That wording is worth pausing on. It is the same distinct PSC condition found on the Daily Mail’s register elsewhere on this site — a person who can direct trustees rather than one who holds shares directly. LinkedIn was a listed company at the time, and Hoffman controlled a majority of its votes through a trust while owning far less of its economics. The dual-class pattern seen at Alphabet and Meta was in place here too, and it ended when Microsoft bought the company outright.

Microsoft’s own filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission are the authoritative record above that; LinkedIn no longer files separately anywhere.

Ownership history and changes

LinkedIn was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and colleagues from PayPal and Socialnet, and launched in 2003. It floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011.

In June 2016 Microsoft agreed to buy it for a reported $26.2bn in cash — at the time Microsoft’s largest acquisition — completing that December. The register’s 8 December 2016 date is when the UK company’s controller changed.

Microsoft has since exceeded that price with its purchase of Activision Blizzard, but LinkedIn remains one of the few large social platforms to have been acquired outright rather than staying independent or being spun off.

There has been no change since 2016, and LinkedIn has operated with considerable autonomy inside Microsoft rather than being absorbed into it.

Related companies and brands

Microsoft owns LinkedIn alongside Windows, Office, Azure, Xbox, GitHub, Mojang and Activision Blizzard. LinkedIn itself owns Lynda.com, bought in 2015 before the Microsoft deal and now LinkedIn Learning.

LinkedIn has no connection to Meta, X, Indeed or Reed — all separately owned. Indeed belongs to Japan’s Recruit Holdings, and Reed is a private British company; the three are competitors in recruitment with no common owner.