The business-oriented social networking service LinkedIn is going to buy lynda.com, privately held online education company, for about $1.5bn. The education company provides courses in many languages aimed at improving technology, business and creative skills. According to the company’s website, subscription fees for the company’s course range between $250 and $375 a year.

LinkedIn, which has been headquartered in Mountain View, California, has decided to expand its services for audiences of professional users. LinkedIn also has its European headquarters in Dublin. The new deal will allow users to know what skills are required to get jobs in desired city, according to Ryan Roslansky, who is head of content in LinkedIn.

While providing information about the new deal, LinkedIn stated that under the deal, it will give about 52% in cash and about 48% will be given in stock for the acquisition. According to reports, the deal will boost hiring business of LinkedIn.

The deal will bolster LinkedIn's hiring business, which has clocked revenue growth of about 50% in the last three quarters. The business was helped by rapid expansion in international markets such as China, the reports stated.

Lynda.com has a number of courses that range from subject such as basic HTML, Photoshop, CSS and many more. The website also offers tutorials and instructional videos from the experts. As per the reports, the company is about two decades old and was founded by technical instructional book author Lynda Weinman and co-founder Bruce Heavin.

Currently, the website is among the popular online technical websites. According to reports, LinkedIn decided to buy Lynda.com for about $1.5 billion after seeing its years of existence in the e-learning market.

Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn, said in a statement, “The mission of LinkedIn and the mission of lynda.com are highly aligned. Both companies seek to help professionals be better at what they do”.