LinkedIn purchases CMU spinoff mSpoke
By Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Major social networking site LinkedIn announced Wednesday that it had purchased mSpoke, a Carnegie Mellon spinoff that works with recommendation technology designed to hold users on websites for longer periods of time.
This is the Mountain View, Calif-based company’s first acquisition since rising to become a leading website for users looking to network and land jobs through posting resumes online. The details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
MSpoke employed about 10 workers in Pittsburgh, and two have been hired by LinkedIn. The other employees have found work elsewhere in anticipation of the acquisition, said CEO Sean Ammirati.
MSpoke technology analyzes a person’s site history to display relevant articles or links. It’s a technology that’s become more popular as online outlets work to unlock user preferences and make the online experience more personalized.
Mr. Ammirati said the partnership with LinkedIn may help users view news stories relevant to their LinkedIn profiles — on their industry or competitors.
“The mSpoke technology that’s going with them can really grow in scale,” said Mr. Ammirati, who now works as chief operating officer at ReadWriteWeb, an Internet industry blog. The companies have discussed an acquisition over the last few months, he said.
More than 75 million users have registered on LinkedIn since its founding in 2003. Bloomberg recently valued the company at $2 billion. This first acquisition has been interpreted by industry insiders as a sign that the company intends to go public.
MSpoke is based Downtown and was founded by Mr. Ammirati, chairman of the board Dave Mawhinney and chief technology officer Dean Thompson. The company, which counts several CMU professors as advisers, has received seed funding from Pittsburgh venture capitalist Ed Engler. Mr. Ammirati is a former research fellow from CMU’s Software Industry Center.
With funding help from nonprofit venture capital firm Innovation Works, mSpoke developed FeedHub, a personalized information feed that selected relevant links based on user activity.
Erich Schwartzel: 412-263-1455.
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