LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B • Hacker News Board

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#21

Post by calinet6 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:55 PM UTC

Congratulations Lynda.com!

Story time. When I was in high school, I worked in a little computer lab in my small hometown of Ojai, California, that taught classes in Photoshop, Fireworks, web design and development, Flash, and more. That little technology education company was just called "Lynda," and classes were taught directly by Lynda Weinman, Bruce Heavin, and others. There were maybe ten or twelve employees. I learned a lot from them over two summers about the intersection of development and design, about teaching and working with people, and so much more. It launched my interest in user experience design and development. Not to mention the epic LAN parties we used to have in that computer lab with all the top-of-the-line graphics workstations... good times.

I have a lot to be thankful for, and I'm so genuinely happy to see their success. They were the nicest people to work with, and I'm sure that remained true as they grew. Congrats to these guys, and I hope they find a good place with LinkedIn.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#22

Post by ladybro » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:55 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #18

This, to me, is terrible news. I am a big fan of Lynda.com. They've always had a great library (both for tech' stuff but are also one of few sites that offer non-tech video training (business courses, photography, etc) and their prices were always very reasonable. LinkedIn can only make the site worse as far as I am concerned, and I already avoid LinkedIn due to the fact that they've essentially become spammers who w…

This. The free Lynda membership I get through my University has been incredibly helpful in understanding things I'm studying as well as diving into new topics. I really, really don't want to see it changed/ruined by LinkedIn :(

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#23

Post by Someone1234 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:56 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #16

As an outsider looking in, LinkedIn's purchase of Lynda.com looks like an odd duck in comparison to their previous acquisitions[1]. As far as I can tell, the Lynda.com brand name isn't that well known outside of tech circles. (Virtually all of their courses are Adobe, Microsoft Office, and web development, etc) I'm guessing those computer courses are relevant to less than 5% of LinkedIn's user base. It was very recen…

> It was very recently (last year or so) that Lynda started doing more business courses

That's provably untrue even according to your own source [0] (when sorted by oldest first). They have videos from 2010 in their business skills section like "Pitching Projects and Products to Executives." And many added in 2011.

Heck I myself watched several business courses on Lynda over three years ago...

[0] http://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-training-tutorials/484-...

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#24

Post by SloopJon » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:57 PM UTC

Much has been made of online education's mini bubble, with an emphasis on MOOcs like Coursera, Udacity, and edX. Having taken several of these classes, it all seemed kind of silly to me. They're great for curiosity and continuing education, but nowhere near replacing a college degree.

Seeing the kind of money that's going into these ventures, there are obviously people still betting big. I think they face a real challenge marketing these classes and certifications as valuable to the students and employers. Coursera used to award a free statement of accomplishment (a PDF, basically). The classes that I've taken recently only recognize students who pay for a verified certificate. The fee is really small, but it's not really worth anything to me.

I've very much enjoyed having free access to so many different classes. I don't know whether it's sustainable as is, but I fear that an acquisition like this may step up the pressure to monetize, show a profit, etc.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#25

Post by smackfu » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:57 PM UTC

aurora72 wrote: post #17

Wonder how they will be able to compete with free online courses, there are plenty of them and they're just as quality. I also wonder how Linked-in itself can compete with other social networks.

Weren't they already a viable business competing with free online courses?

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#26

Post by nly » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:58 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #16

As an outsider looking in, LinkedIn's purchase of Lynda.com looks like an odd duck in comparison to their previous acquisitions[1]. As far as I can tell, the Lynda.com brand name isn't that well known outside of tech circles. (Virtually all of their courses are Adobe, Microsoft Office, and web development, etc) I'm guessing those computer courses are relevant to less than 5% of LinkedIn's user base. It was very recen…

How can their technology possibly be worth $1.5B?

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#27

Post by jonknee » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:58 PM UTC

aurora72 wrote: post #17

Wonder how they will be able to compete with free online courses, there are plenty of them and they're just as quality. I also wonder how Linked-in itself can compete with other social networks.

Considering Lynda has been competing with them for two decades, I'm sure they'll do OK.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#28

Post by jonknee » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:59 PM UTC

Seems like there is room for some integration (not sure about $1.5B worth of integration, but hey).

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#29

Post by jasode » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 2:01 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #23

jasode wrote: post #16

As an outsider looking in, LinkedIn's purchase of Lynda.com looks like an odd duck in comparison to their previous acquisitions[1]. As far as I can tell, the Lynda.com brand name isn't that well known outside of tech circles. (Virtually all of their courses are Adobe, Microsoft Office, and web development, etc) I'm guessing those computer courses are relevant to less than 5% of LinkedIn's user base. It was very recen…

> It was very recently (last year or so) that Lynda started doing more business courses That's provably untrue even according to your own source [0] (when sorted by oldest first). They have videos from 2010 in their business skills section like "Pitching Projects and Products to Executives." And many added in 2011. Heck I myself watched several business courses on Lynda over three years ago... [0] http://www.lynda.co…

Sorry I didn't make it clear. I wrote "more" as in "more business courses" to indicate an uptick in frequency. I wasn't claiming they had zero business courses before 2014.

EDIT ADD: Lynda.com also see themselves as strategically expanding into more business, marketing, professional development, and executive management courses. See their 2014 presentation at 47 seconds: https://youtu.be/qlYKbfjru5I?t=47s

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#30

Post by onhopwood » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 2:02 PM UTC

This could be interesting if you of it think from the ideal, that college traditional education is becoming an outdated format and project based learning is leading the way to gain real world experience. Now job seekers are creating a blank linked-in profile, taking and finishing some online course to show there skills, while automatically generating their resumes and profiles for employers to see.