LinkedIn acquires job-search startup Bright.com for $120M in stock, cash

By VCPOST Staff Reporter

Feb 10, 2014 06:10 PM EST

Mountain View-based professional networking site LinkedIn Corp. has bought San Francisco job-search startup Bright.com in a deal worth $120 million, tech news portal Tech Times said in a report.

According to the report, Bright's technology will enable LinkedIn to improve its applicant suggestions for employers on the lookout for qualified candidates. It will also provide LinkedIn's users more relevant job matches. Bright illustrates how well an employer and an applicant matches via its scoring mechanism.   

"We decided to join LinkedIn because of what we lacked - the ability to apply this technology across the entire economy. We share LinkedIn's passion for connecting talent with opportunity at massive scale. And we agree that the old models for online recruiting are hopelessly broken", Bright founder Eduardo Vivas told Tech Times. 

LinkedIn's $120 million buyout of Bright is comprised of 73% stock and 27% cash and is the professional networking site's biggest acquisition ever. The deal is expected to close before the end of first quarter this year, the report said.

As a result of the buyout, some members of Bright's team, including employees in its engineering and product departments, will be integrated to LinkedIn. However, it could not be learned whether Bright chief executive officer Steve Goodman will report to his company's new owner, Tech Times said.

Bright said that there are more than 2.5 million jobs listed on its website and has over 7 million monthly active users. Meanwhile, LinkedIn matches a prospective applicant to a specific job using their profile information. The professional networking site also features tools that suggest jobs that may be of interest to job seekers, the report said. 

LinkedIn's acquisition of Bright was made public on February 6, during its fiscal year 2013 fourth quarter earnings call. Executives of the professional networking site reported a leap in revenue compared to last year's results, Tech Times said. 

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