Microsoft to pull LinkedIn from Chinese market
American technology giant Microsoft announced today that it will pull its professional social network LinkedIn from the Chinese market later this year.
Microsoft purchased LinkedIn for more than $26 billion back in 2016.
The news comes amidst a flurry of regulatory changes in the Asian nation, as well as rising tensions between the company and the country. Two weeks past, Microsoft came under heavy scrutiny for its decision to block the profiles of certain U.S. journalists in China.
It chose the latter.
In a blog post discussing the news, LinkedIn wrote that the company described its 2014 decision to enter the Chinese market, which meant “adherence to requirements of the Chinese government on Internet platforms” despite it also “strongly support[ing] freedom of expression.”
Shares of Microsoft are up around 1.6% in morning trading, up roughly as much as the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite index. Investors are shrugging off the news, in other words.
What the decision will mean for Microsoft’s relationship with the Chinese market and state is not clear at this juncture. The Chinese Communist Party has been making changes in its domestic cloud market, for example, that could limit its commercial future for foreign companies. Microsoft’s Chinese LinkedIn decision could be viewed through the lens of a possible longer-term decoupling of the tech shop and the nation.
