LinkedIn’s (LNKD) shares shot up nearly 50% today on news of its acquisition by Microsoft (MSFT). The last thing this deal needs at this point is another commentator, but Microsoft’s high premium paid is actually probably not as bad as it seems on the surface (excuse the terrible pun). LNKD was trading at ~253 per share back in November, or about 32% higher than they were trading post-announcement, and 150% higher than they were trading after the bad earnings report that came out in February. (Shares lost approximately half their value.) Outside of pure monetary terms, the forward-looking 54 P/E also looks a bit inflated, but such is tech. MSFT did technically pay a large premium, but companies are typically reluctant to sell near multi-year lows without the request of large premiums to avoid being taken advantage of by potential suitors. Into the bargain, the $196 acquisition price (in cash) is still 29% lower than its November high. Despite MSFT’s poor acquisition/capital allocation history in recent history, I will at least tentatively give the company credit for buying at a low price point. And the logic of wanting to take over a social network geared toward business professionals with 450 million users makes sense in terms of integrating this base into its business software and applications.