LinkedIn Picks Up E-Mail Plug In
The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.
NEW YORK (
) --
(LNKD)
has decided to acquire technology start-up Rapportive, according to
AllthingsD
.
While the acquisition is relatively small in size, it could become a useful tool for the company, which has always believed in making simple updates to improve user engagement. LinkedIn competes in the online job search market with companies like
Monster
(MWW)
and Craigslist.
See our complete stock analysis for LinkedIn's stock
here.
Rapportive makes a browser plug-in for gmail, which displays the social networking details for an individual if he/she is corresponding on e-mail. In short, a user can directly view the correspondent's latest tweet and can immediately know if he has added the individual on Facebook/LinkedIn yet. It's a tool that could increasingly gain relevance as the sheer number of social networking contacts are making it difficult to track whether two people are connected to each other on a given social network.
While it's not too clear how LinkedIn will customize this tool, the company might extend the plug-in to other e-mail services like Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail. The plug-in could also be integrated with the "Apply with LinkedIn" button so that if a candidate follows a company on Facebook he may directly apply to it using "Apply with LinkedIn" on the plug-in.
We currently have a
price estimate of $39 for LinkedIn's stock, which is well below the current market price.
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This commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet guest contributor program. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of TheStreet or its management.
