LinkedIn, CNBC Buddy Up

CNBC and LinkedIn have announced an alliance in which the business cable channel gets content and tools from the professional networking site—and the ability to more efficiently target ads to LinkedIn’s 27 million users, the Financial Times reports. Though LinkedIn’s CEO says CNBC won’t get users’ personal info—yet, at least—analysts say privacy fears could harm the enterprise.

One expert called privacy worries the "Achilles heel" of social networking. But advertisers are spending more to reach business-focused social networks—$40 million this year, with estimates of $210 million by 2012—and have realized the “purpose-driven” users of LinkedIn and the like are more valuable than other networking sites. Members aren’t “going there to share pictures or play Texas Hold ’Em,” LinkedIn’s CEO says. (More CNBC stories.)