Microsoft's effort to reclaim its glory from $3.Nadella mentioned that the company will continue to hire in key strategic areas. I’ve tested over 100 headphones in the past year, and I keep coming back to this $26 pair NOW WATCH: What happens to your brain and body if you use Adderall recreationally

Hoffman is currently a partner at famed Silicon Valley venture firm Greylock, and will stay on in that role. Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in December 2002 and served as its first CEO until 2009, when he stepped back and took a role as executive chairman. That conversation was apparently quickly abandoned, as they moved towards a more tactical discussion of how the two companies could fit together.

Notably, Gates and Hoffman had discussed the possibility of a Microsoft board seat as early as May 9, 2016, when the deal between Microsoft and LinkedIn was only just starting to come together. Hoffman says the move to Microsoft's board was the result of conversations he had with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates about how he could stay involved after the acquisition closed in December 2016. In his blog entry, Hoffman says his focus on the Microsoft board will be continuing to guide the development of LinkedIn, but also that he will ' contribute more broadly as Microsoft deepens its presence in Silicon Valley and continues to weave social, AI, and other technologies into it products.'

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