Professional social networking site LinkedIn has gobbled up another startup. The company announced Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Bright, a San Francisco-based data-driven job search startup, for $120 million.
Parker Barrile, LinkedIn's vice president of product, says the team at Bright will help the company improve job search features such as LinkedIn's “Jobs You May Be Interested In” and LinkedIn Recruiter, and help ensure that job and prospect search results are as relevant as possible.
"[Bright's] incredibly talented team takes the same data-driven approach to connecting people and employers, and has built a powerful matching technology that will help accelerate our efforts on multiple fronts," Barrile said in a blog post announcing the deal.
Here is LinkedIn's take on the deal:
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Bright was founded in 2011 by Eduardo Vivas, who also serves as the company's COO. Bright says that its machine-learning algorithm "examines thousands of data points to find the best fit between job seekers and job openings."
"We decided to join LinkedIn because of what we lacked -- the ability to apply this technology across the entire economy," Vivas wrote in a separate blog post. "We share LinkedIn’s passion for connecting talent with opportunity at massive scale."
Bright had raised $20 million in two funding rounds from Toba Capital and Passport Capital.
Among LinkedIn's other startup acquisitions are Slideshare, which it bought in May 2012 for $119 million, and the Pulse newsreader last year for $90 million.