LinkedIn chairman and co-founder Reid Hoffman and chief executive Jeff Weiner "fully support" the takeover, according to a Microsoft blog.
In the middle of the two is Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, who Weiner will report into if the deal goes through later this year.
To put the USD 26.2bn (GBP 18.5bn) Microsoft are paying into perspective, Facebook paid USD 19bn (GBP 13.4bn) for WhatsApp (at least double the amount of LinkedIn users) in 2014, points out the BBC's Joe Miller.