Salesforce also bid for LinkedIn, but lost out to Microsoft

Microsoft surprised everyone Monday when it announced plans to acquire LinkedIn for more than $26 billion. But it wasn't the only suitor: Salesforce wanted in, too. 

The San Francisco-based software-as-a-service vendor was interested in LinkedIn primarily for its recruiting business, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Recode on Thursday. The company gave LinkedIn a "solid look" but was unable to match Microsoft's huge offer.

Salesforce's interest makes sense: Information from the business-focused social network could have proved useful to people working with Salesforce products. Microsoft has similar ambitions for LinkedIn, which it sees as a potential boon to its Dynamics CRM and Office offerings in particular. 

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