When Microsoft announced that it was acquiring professional social network LinkedIn, many people gasped at the huge price tag.

The fact that Microsoft was engaged in a bidding war against Salesforce for the network helped in that regard, but most people took the perspective that the price tag was an indication of the value that Microsoft and others saw in LinkedIn’s treasure trove of data. Much like IBM’s acquisition of The Weather Channel, this deal was about tuning algorithms by using the vast amount of data available.

But there is never a singular reason for the acquisitions in these cases and Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, made mention of this in his Q2 earnings call. He spoke about LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator offering and suggested that the salesperson system of engagement could translate into a huge opportunity:

“Sales Navigator’s success on multiple CRM platforms makes it an essential tool for every B2B salesperson and one of our first integration scenarios will be to redefine social selling by enhancing Dynamics 365 with LinkedIn capabilities. The combination of LinkedIn’s business solutions and Dynamics 365 gives us a more comprehensive portfolio of business SaaS solutions and strengthens our position in this growing and competitive market.”