Microsoft stunned the financial and technology worlds last week when it revealed it was buying professional listing and messaging service LinkedIn for US$26 million.

But it now turns out it wasn’t the only bidder, and may have had to boost its offer in order to beat the lone other bidder: Salesforce.com.

The San Francisco-based software-as-a-service vendor was interested in LinkedIn primarily for its recruiting business, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Silicon Valley technology news site Recode on Thursday. The company gave LinkedIn a “solid look” but in the end was unable to match Microsoft’s huge offer, Benioff said.

According to Recode, Salesforce approached LinkedIn when the company was already deep into negotiations with Microsoft. Its bid was a combined cash and stock offer, while Microsoft’s final bid was all cash, and allows LinkedIn to continue operating independently.