Dive Brief: 

• LinkedIn announced Thursday its $1.5 billion acquisition of online education site Lynda.com.  
• The acquisition—LinkedIn's biggest ever—will allow users to boost their professional profiles by completing accredited courses. Marketers and recruiters will also be able to search users by the courses they completed. 
• The biggest advantage for LinkedIn could be the wealth of first party data from Lynda.com that it can apply to its Display Network, which leverages LinkedIn data for ad buys across the web. 

Dive Insight: 

The merging of Lynda.com's online courses into LinkedIn's professional services seems like a perfect fit. Both its users and its advertisers could benefit from Lynda.com's courses and data. Educational videos watched by a professional could provide significant insight into their interests, goals, and lifestyle for advertisers within and outside of LinkedIn's platform.