Twitter spikes after Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26 billion

Twitter shares spiked by as much as 5% in pre-market trading Monday following news that Microsoft is buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion.

After a relatively quiet year for M&A activity across the market and in Silicon Valley, the news is a sign that dealmaking is picking up again.

And as a possible acquisition target that's struggling like LinkedIn, this is presumably good news for Twitter. The social network has struggled to grow its number of active monthly users and ad sales.

LinkedIn has also fallen out of favor with analysts and investors recently. In February, the stock suffered its worst intraday drop ever after the company released earnings guidance that was weaker than expected.

Shares of Facebook and Yelp jumped after news of the deal as well, while LinkedIn rocketed 48%. Salesforce shares fell about 2.5%.

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