“This is a developing area of law and it can be expected that further court decisions will clarify the issues in time. Who owns an employees LinkedIn contacts Or Facebook friends Or Twitter tweeps If an employee is using these social-media sites in his or her professional. The employer can then communicate with connections to explain how their relationship with the organisation will be managed in the future.” This can include providing the employer with a list of connections and the content of any messages. Employers should also be clear on what will happen when individuals leave. These should set out what they expect employers to do – how their profile is written, who they expect staff to link to and how it is used to communicate with contacts. “Despite the absence of a clear legal ruling on this issue, employers can–and should–protect themselves with specific terms in contracts or clearly defined policies on LinkedIn. This acknowledges the commercial sensitivity of the data and the fact that the business shouldn’t lose out on this when an employee moves on.

“Although the law still has to catch up, the courts seem to appreciate that businesses should have access to any contacts –including clients and customers– which an employee cultivates while working. In these cases, the courts have ruled that businesses have a right to lists of employees’ LinkedIn connections and restrict them transferring them when they leave the firm. Despite this, there have been a number of court decisions where that principle has been over-ruled. “LinkedIn’s own terms and conditions tell us that the profile and all that goes with it belong to the individual, not their employer. But when the LinkedIn profile is ‘owned’ by an employee what happens to all those contacts when they leave? Historically, employers have been able to protect data – in the form of customer or client databases, for example – with confidentiality agreements and covenants in employment contracts. Of course contacts and customers are a valuable commodity that businesses have an interest in protecting. “Organisations want their staff to build up contacts for the business and on LinkedIn those contacts become an individual’s connections. LinkedIn is now a well-established business tool for individuals to promote themselves and the organisations for which they work, but who actually owns your connections? Coodes Solicitor Philip Sayers, argues that the law needs to catch up and outlines what employers need to know in the meantime. RELATED: Microsoft profits rise 47% to $16.Posted on October 28, 2015, by Philip Sayers But it looked to be on a trajectory toward profitability before Microsoft stopped disclosing LinkedIn’s operating profits.ĭiscussing the results Tuesday, Nadella said LinkedIn now has 774 million members, and user sessions were up 30% in the quarter compared with a year ago. LinkedIn ran at a loss initially inside Microsoft due to long-term costs associated with the acquisition, as we reported at the time. LinkedIn was profitable earlier in its life as a standalone public company, before posting a $165 million loss on $3 billion in revenue in 2015, prior to the Microsoft acquisition. Microsoft stopped reporting LinkedIn’s operating profits publicly in its 2019 fiscal year. Other businesses that have crossed that threshold in recent years at the company including gaming and security.Įven with all the growth, it’s not clear if LinkedIn is profitable, at least not officially. The $10 billion revenue threshold is considered a key milestone of success inside Microsoft.

He cited as examples LinkedIn’s integrations with Office, Dynamics 365 and the new Microsoft Viva employee experience platform. Still, on the call Tuesday afternoon, Nadella made it clear that LinkedIn’s independence hasn’t kept it from working with other parts of Microsoft.

Who owns linkedin