There was a Nova Scotian angle to the $1.5 billion deal that was the talk of Silicon Valley yesterday.

Professional social media network LinkedIn announced it would pay $1.5 billion in cash and stock for Lynda.com, a Carpinteria, Calif.-based company that offers online training. Part of the technology that LinkedIn is buying was developed by Halifax-based Compilr, founded by serial entrepreneur Patrick Hankinson.

Last year, Lynda bought Compilr for an undisclosed price, and Hankinson and his CTO Tim Speed have continued to work on the product since the deal closed.

Compilr began life in 2011 as a platform that would allow programmers to write code on the cloud, but it involved into a training service that taught people online to write code. It was a natural fit for Lynda’s suite of training products.

Aside from the fact that Atlantic Canadian technology helped this deal, the notable thing about the announcement is that Hankinson is continuing to grow as a tech player. He’s been involved in two exits in just more than a year, including a substantial deal in Silicon Valley.

He’s also re-channeling his gains into the tech community in the region. According to Angel List, he’s an investor in such Halifax startups as Leadsift, Dash Hudson,  Proposify,  UpMyGame,  BlueLight Analytics. He also had money in Charlottetown-based GetGifted, which this week signaled it would cease operation.