LinkedIn Files For IPO

Developing: More information to come.

LinkedIn has just filed for its IPO.

As TechCrunch initially reported, and the company's official blog confirmed, the business networking site has just submitted an S-1 filing with the SEC. The maximum proposed offering price is $175 million, though the amount is sure to change. Private trading exchange SharesPost indicates LinkedIn's implied value is $2.5 billion.

Number of shares to be sold and price range have not yet been decided. While some of the shares will be issued for sale, others will be sold by stockholders of the company. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan will act as the bookkeeping managers.

LinkedIn launched in 2003, with a mobile version launching in 2008. As of this January, the site had over 90 million registered users, up from 55 million in 2009, in over 200 countries. They had 65 million unique visitors this past December.

The company reported revenue of $161.4 million in the first nine months of 2010, with a $10 million profit over the period as a major increase on the $3.4 million on the same period in 2009.

LinkedIn generates revenue from advertisements, as well as hiring solutions like LinkedIn Jobs and LinkedIn Corporate Solutions, and subscriptions which offer companies looking to hire access to premium services. In 2010, over 33,000 customers used its marketing solutions, and over 3,900 companies used its hiring solutions, including 69 of the Fortune 100 companies.

On Wednesday, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Ads, a self-service direct ads service that helps target users based on things like company or job title

As a risk factor in the S-1 filing, the company notes that "the number of our registered members is higher than the number of actual members, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members."

According to the Financial Times:

LinkedIn would join Skype and Kayak among recent web companies that have signalled their intention to head to the public markets. Facebook and Groupon have also been the subject of considerable speculation.

Demand Media, which creates content for web sites, saw its shares soar 33 per cent in first-day trading to $22.65 after a public listing on Wednesday.

Comments

[NYCSocialWork]

06:09 AM on 01/30/2011

Besides getting invites to LinkedIn from old acquaintances, I've never used it or heard ANYTHING about it. What does it even do? Now they want me to invest in them?

[Angel R1240]

10:53 PM on 01/28/2011

I read about this in the Wall Street Journal. I think it's a bad idea. I hope that I'm wrong but this bubble will blow.

[Burger Safa]

08:56 AM on 01/28/2011

I Have bussiness at Bandung, West Java, Indonesia...I Need Investor for developtment my bussiness, please see my blog http://www.burger3500.blogspot.com or http://www.infobandung.co.cc

[Burger Safa]

08:53 AM on 01/28/2011

Good News

[UnknownSolider]

08:38 AM on 01/28/2011

Bad Move Linked in

[dulceburro]

10:02 AM on 01/28/2011

agreed

[cyoohoos]

07:11 AM on 01/28/2011

Why let a good bubble go to waste

[ndem]

03:10 AM on 01/28/2011

i quit facebook and now will quit linkedin

[amazed by it all]

12:08 AM on 01/28/2011

There will be plenty of sharks swimming close to the shore, ready to short this stock until there is no meat left on the bone. The thought of LinkedIn trading on the public exchange makes me giggle.

[UnknownSolider]

08:44 AM on 01/28/2011

The taking your company public thing is a last century idea, its time has come and gone........ mainly because too many people on Wall Street don't know what it means to actually run a business...... so they have no business analyzing other people's business and making recommendations on whether a company is strong or not....... so all they do is trade based on assumption, rumor, and theory, not practical knowledge........
 
keep your companies privately held, and share your profits with investors, not your stocks

[StansDad]

12:07 AM on 01/28/2011

Cashing in before it collapses eh?

[JayMonaco]

11:16 AM on 01/28/2011

Yeah exactly...site was basically a profesh version of Friendster

[SwingingFromCenter]

10:44 PM on 01/27/2011

The phrase "so?" comes immediately to mind.  LinkedIn is great in theory, but it is/was essentially a passing fad that is already on the downswing.

[costellowriter]

08:43 PM on 01/27/2011

YESSSSS. Now we can buy more over priced shares in a company that produces absolutely nothing - and is worth absolutely nothing.
http://bizcovering.com/investing/understanding-the-economic-mess/

[Andrew Daley]

08:21 PM on 01/27/2011

Great brand... but the bubble expands...

[costellowriter]

08:44 PM on 01/27/2011

Exactly, and our retirement accounts will be used to buy these over priced shares that are doomed to crash to their real value of zero.
http://bizcovering.com/investing/understanding-the-economic-mess/

[Kathy8185]

05:24 PM on 01/27/2011

I hope this works out for them. I love LinkedIn - it is a great networking tool along with other forms of business networking
http://www.sales-training-for-business.com/what-is-networking.html

[JohnnyIdaho]

05:12 PM on 01/27/2011

Tech Bubble 2.0, get it while its hot

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

06:21 PM on 01/27/2011

With all the drooling hype about social media, of course. Do any of these sites make a decent profit? And do any of the marketing schemes they use general a ROI for the people that pay for them?
http://come-to-my-fakesite-so-I-can-generate-traffic-and-try-to-make-money-off-it/otherwise-Im-back-to-washing-dishes.html

[OnlyIfIHaveTo]

08:22 PM on 01/27/2011

Once Goldman & other banks deemed the values of them at absurd amounts, the drooling will continue. I don't get it either.

[Philosoweed]

10:56 PM on 01/27/2011

I think I'm going to sit back and watch. Thanks for the offer though.