Today, LinkedIn acquired ChoiceVendor, a startup that provides real-world ratings and reviews of business-to-business service providers in more than 70 categories across the United States.
Here is the announcement from the ChoiceVendor website (which is no longer navigable):
Today, LinkedIn announced that it has completed its acquisition of ChoiceVendor.
The ChoiceVendor and LinkedIn teams are equally passionate about helping professionals make the best decisions. As part of LinkedIn, we’ll contribute our knowledge and ideas to the products and services that reach LinkedIn’s network of more than 75 million professionals.
Effective immediately, we’ll be ceasing operations at choicevendor.com. We’re very grateful for your support, and we look forward to connecting with you on LinkedIn!
ChoiceVendor is a San Francisco Bay-based startup company that launched just months ago, in May of 2010. They are described as a Yelp-like review service aimed at the B2B space. According to Mashable, “The B2B space is actually an area where peer-driven recommendations can really come in handy, because if you are trying to find an IT consultant in your area, a business attorney or a place to rent office furniture, it can be hard to get started in that process unless you already have connections to make referrals…This is exactly the type of problem that ChoiceVendor aims to help solve. Businesses can add or claim their business on the service and then request that clients rate them there. Customers can rate their experience and also provide context about the working relationship.”
This is the second official acquisition that LinkedIn has made this year. Last month, they acquired mSpoke, a startup focused on making media more relevant through their recommendation technology with offerings for content publishers, research analysts and individuals.
Looks like LinkedIn is ramping up for something pretty big. We’re keeping an eye on things and will keep you informed!
