Microsoft announced its plan for acquisition of LinkedIn, a social network for professionals. It is said that the transaction is valued at $26.2 billion, including LinkedIn’s net cash. The deal is said to close at year end.

Making the announcement in a joint statement on Monday, the companies said LinkedIn will continue with its own "brand, culture, and independence", and that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner will continue in his role, but now report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, as per NDTV.

And with this acquisition, Microsoft may become the first tech company to attain $1-Trillion Market Value, said Analyst Michael Markowski. In his article at Equities, he predicted that with Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, it will allow the company to do leverage and take advantage of the emerging crowdfunding industry.

According to Markowski, “the first to a trillion will be an online or digital company. Digital companies have highly scalable models that address more than a billion individuals. More importantly, digital companies have the highest profit margins and have superb cash flow when compared to non-digital companies.”

The digital contestant to the Race for Trillion are these tech giants, with billions of profit as of December. Apple ($622.6B), Alphabet ($549.7B), Microsoft ($489.3B), Amazon ($358.7B), and Facebook ($337.6B).
Furthermore, the analyst cited three reasons on why Microsoft is the best candidate to bet for the race for trillion. The firs one being the company’s free cash flow yield which is relatively the highest of all the competitors.

Likewise, its acquisition of LinkedIn is an ultimate game changer considering that it can expand Microsoft’s PE multiple. And lastly, the tech corporation also plays a key role in Social Investing industry which is considered as the key to driving crowdfunding to ubiquity.

“Microsoft clearly has the potential to outperform the market. Most importantly, the downside for its share price is limited since the current dividend yield is 2.5%,” Markowski further reported.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates!