Twitter buys LinkedIn competitor Laskie in first acquisition since Musk takeover

Twitter has acquired recruitment business Laskie in the first acquisition of the company since Elon Musk’s purchase in October 2022. The deal is rumored to have cost “Tens of millions”.

Twitter, now led by Elon Musk, has bought Laskie, a startup in the job-matching tech scene. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, with hopes of making the social media website more profitable. The acquisition was first reported by Axios.

It’s the first purchase that Twitter has made since Elon Musk took the reins, even though he is to be replaced as CEO imminently. More than that, it’s a big leap forward in his vision of turning Twitter into an app that can facilitate other features, like dating, and additional microtransactions outside of the Twitter Blue subscription.

What is Laskie?

Laskie is a San Franciso-based startup born in 2021 and is built to help people find jobs in a similar fashion to LinkedIn. Its founder and CEO Chris Bakke, has a history in the industry, previously selling a different company to huge online job site Indeed.

Laskie’s website now says that the service is no longer available. Laskie did well in its short life, raising a cool $6 million in funding prior to being acquired by Twitter, according to the Axios report.

How much did Twitter purchase Laskie for?

Details are scarce for the amount that was paid by Twitter to acquire Laskie, but it is rumored to be in the “tens of millions”, according to the Axios report. A source told Axios that Twitter paid in both cash and shares.

But it’s clear that this is a huge step for Twitter, and with Musk in the driving seat, it’s looking like the platform might start to offer way more than just tweets.

What’s next for Twitter?

Armed with a new CEO, we expect that Twitter will continue to operate as normal, with more features to come to assist the business in monetizing its user base in order to generate revenue. It’s possible that we may see more acquisitions from them in the future. Meanwhile, Twitter competitors such as Bluesky keep gaining traction.