LinkedIn to buy online education company lynda.com for $1.5 bln

(Reuters) - Professional social network operator LinkedIn Corp said it would buy privately held online education company lynda.com in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $1.5 billion (1.01 billion pounds). Lynda.com offers courses in a number of languages aimed at improving business, technology and creative skills. Subscription fees for its courses range between $250 and $375 per year, according to its website. With the integration of lynda.com and LinkedIn, users will know what skills are needed for the available jobs in their desired city, Ryan Roslansky, LinkedIn's head of content, wrote in a blog. LinkedIn said it would pay about 52 percent in cash and about 48 percent in stock for the acquisition. The deal will bolster LinkedIn's hiring business, which has clocked revenue growth of nearly 50 percent in each of the last three quarters, helped by rapid expansion in international markets such as China. LinkedIn shares edged up 0.1 percent at midday. (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)