Online education company
LinkedIn Learning is an American online learning provider. It provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills. It is a subsidiary of LinkedIn. All the courses on LinkedIn fall into four categories: Business, Creative, Technology and Certifications.
It was founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman as Lynda.com before being acquired by LinkedIn in 2015.[2] Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in December 2016.[3]
History
LinkedIn Learning was founded as Lynda.com in 1995 in Ojai, California, as online support for the books and classes of Lynda Weinman, a special effects animator and multimedia professor who founded a digital arts school with her husband, artist Bruce Heavin.[4]
In 2002, the company began offering courses online.[5] By 2004, there were 100 courses, and in 2008, the company began producing and publishing documentaries on creative leaders, artists, and entrepreneurs.[6]
In 2013, Lynda.com received its first outside investment, raising $103 million in growth equity from Accel Partners and Spectrum Equity, with additional contributions from Meritech Capital Partners.[7] On January 14, 2015, Lynda.com announced it had raised $186 million in financing, led by investment group TPG Capital.[8]
On April 9, 2015, LinkedIn announced its intention to buy Lynda.com in a deal valued at $1.5 billion, which officially closed on May 14, 2015.[9]
In 2016, Lynda.com began to broadcast courses on their Apple TV application.[10]
On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Lynda.com's parent company LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. The acquisition was completed on December 8, 2016.[11][12][13]
In October 2017, Lynda.com was merged and renamed LinkedIn Learning.[14] In 2019, the site announced that users accessing LinkedIn Learning through their public library would be required to create a LinkedIn profile in order to use the service; the decision faced criticism from librarians and the American Library Association.[15][16][17] As of March 2021, libraries started migrating to LinkedIn Learning without requiring patrons to create a LinkedIn profile.[18]
On June 2, 2021, the lynda.com site was shutdown and is now permanently redirected to LinkedIn Learning.[19]
Acquisitions
In February 2013, Lynda.com acquired video2brain, an Austrian-based provider of online classes in web design and programming, available in German, French, Spanish, and English.[20]
On April 7, 2014, Lynda.com purchased Canadian startup Compilr, provider of an online editor and sandbox.[21]
Service details
LinkedIn Learning is a subscription service that costs $40/month or $25/month if paid annually (as of 2021). It has a catalog of 16,000+ courses and learning paths.[19]
