Microsoft didn't have highest bid for LinkedIn, another bidder, likely Salesforce, offered $200/share in cash and stock, but Microsoft's all cash bid prevailed
We knew that before Microsoft paid $26 billion for LinkedIn, the social network was also reportedly in talks with Salesforce, which ultimately couldn't afford to compete.
Context & Ripple Effects
The auction behind Microsoft's $26.2 billion LinkedIn purchase is now fully documented: after Benioff confirmed Salesforce was a rival suitor, an SEC filing showed LinkedIn drew interest from as many as five possible buyers, including Google and Facebook, and a play-by-play account detailed how the process unfolded.
This report adds the pricing twist: Salesforce's $200-per-share cash-and-stock offer topped Microsoft on paper, but Microsoft's all-cash structure won anyway — because Salesforce, as Business Insider notes, ultimately couldn't afford to compete.
First-order effects
- LinkedIn shareholders accepted Microsoft's lower-headline all-cash offer over Salesforce's richer mixed bid, trading headline price for payment certainty and immediate liquidity.
- Salesforce loses the professional-graph asset it was willing to pay more for, having been priced out by its own weaker currency mix.
Second-order effects
- Salesforce is pushed back toward smaller, bolt-on acquisitions and organic product building, since a stock-heavy bidder cannot win head-to-head against a cash-rich rival at this deal size.
- Google and Facebook's reported interest confirms the professional network's data value to ad- and cloud-driven rivals, keeping pressure on Microsoft to integrate LinkedIn quickly enough to justify outbidding them.
Third-order effects
- Mega-deal auctions among large-cap tech buyers are increasingly decided by balance-sheet structure — all-cash capacity beats nominal price — which advantages the biggest cash holders and disadvantages SaaS companies whose currency is inflated stock.
- If acquirers keep disclosing these tick-tock accounts through SEC filings, future targets gain a playbook for running competitive auctions that force strategic buyers to reveal how much they will actually pay.
The trend: Large tech acquisitions are being settled by cash-rich balance sheets rather than highest headline bids, concentrating transformative deals among the few buyers who can pay entirely in cash.