LinkedIn To Be Gobbled Up By News Corp?

Mike Butcher from TechcrunchUK has a source on a rumor of News Corp. acquiring LinkedIn in 2008. I like this a lot. This makes absolute sense for News Corp who needs to get deeper online and since LinkedIn works for the business crowd and there is some overlap with newspaper readers, this is a deal I can approve.

This is a much better plan than to go after Digg. Except for possible ad revenues, the Digg audience does not match up well against News Corp. But LinkedIn does. It would instantly increase the userbase of LinkedIn and *could* bring some new readers to the WSJ newspaper.

Mike notes, "However, while online revenue is growing it isn’t offsetting the declines in print revenue. So newspapers need another way to monetise their online operations, and social networking - which is eating into classified revenues - is the natural route to take."

Check out our previous LinkedIn coverage including "Are the Most LinkedIn Really LinkedOut?" and our coverage of new Yahoo competitor Kickstart.

(no charge for the Thanksgiving "Gobble" reference)