[shortstuffsushi]

Not to say it won't happen, but which fresh set of users would Microsoft bring? Who do you know that isn't on LinkedIn (registered, if not actively using)? And of those people, what features do you think would make them want to start using LinkedIn?

[jklinger410]

1. Mash Linkedin and Skype and create a Slack/Facebook For Business Competitor.

2. Integrate that with Office 360 for Business.

3. Create a much more appealing Resume/CV that either integrates well with hiring tools or competes directly with them (monster, indeed, so-on) by creating your own backend for recruiting.

4. Make it very simple to migrate your MS Live/Outlook/Skype profile to a Linkedin profile (or do it automatically ala Google+).

This makes advertisers happy. This makes any corp using Office 360 immediately integrate to Linkedin. This makes Linkedin much more appealing to candidates and recruiters. This could bring people over from competitor services. This actually makes the entire MS Office suite more appealing.

[kohanz]

Isn't (3) what they've been trying to accomplish for years? I believe what you see now in LinkedIn is their best effort at tackling that problem (and I'm not impressed).

[jklinger410]

Yeah, it is. I guess it's a bit of an assumption of mine that MS would be able to do a better job of it than Linkedin.

[rhizome]

Has their "resume" representation even changed in 5 years? I doubt they're seeing it as a problem to be tackled. Everything I know about the company says that the left hand doesn't care what the right hand is doing, and they have a lot of hands.

[baddox]

I don't have a LinkedIn account, and I would probably reopen one if I heard that they stopped their incessant spam emails. I'm surprised that they haven't been sued to MySpace and back for those email policies, which almost certainly are illegal in the United States. (This based on my experience, which ended 2 or 3 years ago when, after months of failed attempts, I managed to close my account.)

[wst_]

Can't you just disable it? I got emails only when someone is sending me a message or invites me.

[ohyoutravel]

iirc when you sign up, they sua sponte take all your contacts from [fb, Google, your phone, etc] and message all of them saying you have invited them to join LinkedIn. This is the scummy behavior I assume the poster is talking about.

[eli]

Not for years, they lost a lawsuit over that practice.

[snowwindwaves]

I signed up with a fake name and throwaway email the other day and I couldn't believe the process. There were about 8 steps for entering more and more personal information and one of them was definitely allowing linked in access to my email account.