LinkedIn Acquires mSpoke

Professional online network LinkedIn will acquire mSpoke, a startup that developed a recommendation engine designed to help content publishers, research analysts, and end users cull through the seemingly endless mounds of data available on the Internet.

"mSpoke and LinkedIn's shared focus on generating relevant content make this acquisition a natural fit for us," Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO, said in a statement. "We're actively investing in solutions that help deliver valuable professional insights to LinkedIn members. The addition of mSpoke's talented team of technologists make it an even more compelling opportunity for LinkedIn."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

LinkedIn -- which last month received a $20 million infusion from Tiger Global Management -- recently was valued at more than $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. The online community has about 70 million members worldwide, and is widely viewed as a future IPO candidate.

Pittsburgh-based mSpoke was founded in 2002 by rocket scientists from Carnegie Mellon, according to a company profile. The developer's technologies allow organizations to send personalized newsletters; aggregate RSS content; create related content widgets; target whitepapers and advertising; analyze and annotate media content; and marry reader interests to personalized information, according to mSpoke.

"As we spent time with the LinkedIn team, we were struck by how similar our visions are," said Dean Thompson, an mSpoke co-founder. "Both LinkedIn and mSpoke are passionate about generating relevancy from the rich stream of content being created by our members. We're looking forward to joining the team and helping provide useful recommendations that help professionals tackle problems quickly and more efficiently."

Other co-founders include Sean Ammirati, Dave Mawhinney, Dean Thompson, and Ed Engler.