LINKEDIN, THE social networking site for professionals, plans to go public in 2011 and has selected its financial underwriters, three sources familiar with the process told Reuters.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JP Morgan are among the book runners, these sources said. Bankers made their pitches to the privately-held company in November, one of the sources said.
“An IPO is just one of many tactics that we could consider,” a spokesman for LinkedIn said on Wednesday. He declined further comment.
Internet companies such as LinkedIn and Zynga, a popular maker of online social games, are considering offerings well ahead of a potential IPO of Facebook, two sources said.
“Some of these companies want to go public because they want to beat Facebook and others out,” said one of the sources. “If Facebook went public before Linkedin, do you think anyone would pay that much attention to Linkedin?” You might want to surpass the beast.”
Zynga couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.
Facebook is not expected to file for a public offering until late 2012,Facebook board member Peter Thiel told Reuters in September.
But that could change. Regulators are scrutinizing a $ 500 million investment and a commitment to raise at least $ 1 billion more in Facebook this week by Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies, one of the sources said.
The SEC is reviewing whether the number of shareholders in Facebook has exceeded a 499 limit in order to remain private. If the SEC decided Facebook has moved past the threshold, it could accelerate Facebook’s timeline for an offering, the source said.
Facebook and Goldman have declined to comment.
The people familiar with the process said LinkedIn is hoping to attract investors on its reputation as one of the Web’s fastest growing social network sites. The site claims more than 85 million members.
The filing of LinkedIn’s S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which contains the basic financial information of an issuer, could take months, said one of the sources.
“There are lots of things that are worked on that they could put on hold; they miss numbers; they want to grow a little more,” another of the sources said.
Linkedin, which does not disclose financial results, makes money from advertising and premium services. The valuation of a Linkedin IPO was not given by the sources.
Sales of its stock on online secondary market exchange SharesPost gives LinkedIn an implied valuation of around $ 2.2 billion.
In an interview with Reuters in September, Chief Executive Jeff Weiner said the company has had discussions with bankers, but wouldn’t “characterize it as being specific about discussing IPOs.” He said that such conversations have occurred since he joined the company as interim president in early 2009.
LinkedIn’s investors include Sequoia Capital the venture capital firm that has backed Yahoo, Google, Apple, Cisco Systems and Oracle Greylock Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Goldman Sachs.
NEW YORK — Professional networking website LinkedIn hopes to sell its stock for $ 32 to $ 35 per share in an upcoming initial public offering. Its IPO may encourage other growing Internet services to make their stock market debuts during the next year.
The price target, set in a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, signals that LinkedIn is nearly ready to complete its IPO. The shares are expected to be sold May 18, according to IPO analyst Scott Sweet. The stock would then begin trading under the ticker symbol of “LNKD” on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company’s debut could offer a preview of investor demand for other popular online services that connect people with common interests. Although they haven’t set timetables, Facebook, Twitter, the online deals site Groupon and the game maker Zynga are among the other social-networking services expected to go public.
With more than 500 million users, Facebook is considered to the hottest commodity of them all. The 7-year-old company’s market value has been pegged at $ 50 billion, based on a private investment in January.
The company said the offering could raise up to $ 274 million, including the cash that would to go existing shareholders who are selling part of their stakes in the IPO. Based
on the IPO’s price targets, LinkedIn would have a market value of $ 3 billion to $ 3.3 billion.Former PayPal executive Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn eight years ago. Now a venture capitalist, Hoffman remains LinkedIn’s chairman and largest shareholder with a projected post-IPO stake worth $ 600 million to $ 665 million.
LinkedIn’s stock offering is expected to attract a lot of attention because it revolves around a well-known Internet brand with more than 100 million registered members.
Most of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from fees it charges for recruiters and businesses that want expanded access to LinkedIn’s website to help fill job openings. The company also sells online ads.
Last year, LinkedIn had net income of $ 3.4 million on revenue of $ 243 million. Its revenue totaled $ 94 million during the first three months of this year, more than doubling from the same period last year.
LinkedIn will offer 4.8 million shares. The company’s current stockholders, including Hoffman, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs and publishing company McGraw-Hill, will sell 3 million shares.
The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., said there will be 94.5 million common shares outstanding after the IPO.
After paying investment banking fees and other expenses, LinkedIn estimated it will collect nearly $ 147 million from the IPO at the midrange target price of $ 33.50. LinkedIn plans to use the money for operations and possibly to buy other companies.
Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan are managing the offering.
Professional networking website LinkedIn hopes to sell its stock for to per share in an upcoming initial public offering. Its IPO may encourage other growing Internet services to make their stock market debuts during the next year.
This is also a kind of Social Media Promotion; here it is absolutely devoted for professional networking. It is a great tool to connect with current and former colleagues, researching companies and individuals, seeking jobs, market and business research. It is so easy to start business by visiting LinkedIn website and register for a free account. All things you need just a login name and an email address to begin. With Linked, your email will become your profile. The reason why it have to do this is to avoid duplicate account.
You can start building your profile it has user-friendly interface, when you are identified in LinkedIn based on what you have entered, ensure you give LinkedIn everything it prompts for i.e. reach “100% Profile completion. Simultaneously you can start uploading your CV Resume to help you create your Profile initially.
This is one of the major segments in updating your complete profile. Cautiously craft your headline, summary statement. Include professional photo of yours, this should look up in a close up shot and reflecting yourself from a targeted industry.
Proofread your profile from content editing experts, since there are chances of typo errors poor grammar and spelling mistakes. Tell your content editing experts to be genuine with you and tell if your profile is concise, valid, and convincing.
There is an option called Seek Recommendations, aim for at least one recommendation for every career position you list. This will emphasize your profile visibility in the market. Keep yourself visible, since so many of them are searching linked to retrieve their lost contacts/resources.
So improve your chance of being found by adding your important keywords in your Profile, completing your Profile to 100%.
I have a very good experience in using LinkedIn, able to identify new business contacts. So folks start using the LinkedIn account and experience the reward.
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LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 120 million members and still growing. LinkedIn connects one to his trusted contacts and helps him exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. If you joined LinkedIn and filled out the profile thinking it was only an online resume, you’re definitely missing out on a world of opportunity. But there are more than 150 million people there who are ready to do business. It is, no doubt, the professional social network. Linked-In is undoubtedly the most desired one in the field of marketing. In a time span of 7 years it has established itself as one of the leader in the social media space. If you are a businessperson or an entrepreneur looking to promote your business digitally Linked-In is something that should be considered. Linked-In has come up with a wide range of features and applications that a marketer can use to promote their business.
If used wisely it can take the brand to an unprecedented height. Blank Page can help one set up one’s LinkedIn company page and also plan LinkedIn advertising campaigns as part of the broader digital marketing strategy. But a few days back many LinkedIn passwords were hacked. LinkedIn has confirmed that a number of accounts may have been compromised in an apparent cyber attack among reports that up to 6.5 million passwords may have been leaked online. A company spokesman said: “We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts.” According to a report on the technology website ZDNet, while some of the login details supposedly stolen are likely to be encrypted, some information may be compromised and LinkedIn members are advised to change their passwords.
A file containing 6,458,020 encoded passwords was reportedly posted online in the past few days.
LinkedIn said it was continuing to investigate the incident. However, it said members that have accounts associated with the compromised passwords would notice that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid.
“These members will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords,” it said. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: “It would seem sensible to suggest to all LinkedIn users that they change their passwords as soon as possible as a precautionary step. “Of course, make sure that the password you use is unique — in other words, not used on any other websites — and that it is hard to crack. “If you were using the same passwords on other websites, make sure to change them too. And never again use the same password on multiple websites.” The site was started in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman in 2002. The company employs some 2,447 employees including over 100 here in Ireland.
Just like other social media platforms here too a user needs to create an account simply by filing-up a form and confirming the activation link that Linked-In provides to its users. Once this is done one can leverage many applications and platforms that Linked-In offers to its users and customers. Groups are the digital space where like-minded people congregate to exchange their views and ideas. A group may have hundreds and thousands of people who are in the same niche and industry. You can build your relationship with these people simply by joining the group.
LinkedIn has an events platform that allows one to target thousands of professionals for free. Creating an event on LinkedIn is simple. One just needs to answer a few questions and then start promoting the event. Send an invitation to the people who would be interested in the event based on region or niche. A person will notice a wealth of opportunities from hosting one’s own event. This is one of the ways of LinkedIn Marketing that helps business grow.
With the influence of social media influx in our life, it’s sometimes easier to underestimate the power of LinkedIn. Though if you compare LinkedIn with Facebook and Twitter, fan base wise it will always lag behind, reason being it is not hunted by frolicking teenagers posting pictures of their last party, or updating the mundane daily routines. LinkedIn is more serious and for those who says it’s only for the people who are looking for jobs, let me state, they simply don’t know how it works.
The large base of 150 million people on LinkedIn is not just job seekers, but as we know business is all about networking, it comes as a big platform to expand their network and find people who will help them expand it by sharing their knowledge and experience. LinkedIn basically provides you a platform showcasing your current and previous employment, professional work experience, educational background, company where you worked etc, almost like a curriculum vitae. It then allows you to connect with others people, networks, work groups, companies, colleagues, and business partners etc, naming it ‘connections’.
Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is designed more for professional and business purpose and offers a profile in a more business sense. Web Design India Facebook on the other hand is used to connect with your friends and family. When you want to know where your school friend is working now, you connect to Linkedin, when you want to know your friend is married and have kids or not, you connect to Facebook.
Another advantage of Linkedin is, it gets higher page ranking in Google and thats a good way of increasing your visibility.
All you have to do is make your profile fully available and also publish your website, if you have one. Go for quantity and not for quality when it come to LinkedIn, meaning having over 10’000 connections might be ego-boosting but it will do nothing for you professionally. It always better to add people who will come in handy and share similar interest and seriousness. Adding random people into your conncetions just for the sake of it will only dilute your credentials. The moto is to go for quality over quantity.
Your LinkedIn profile is your face to the LinkedIn world, it’s important to build your profile brick by brick and make your accessible to interest groups, participate in forum discussions and make your point across, offer valuable content and have good manner. Try LinkedIn, you will surely see the results.
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LinkedIn is a social networking site that is meant for businesses. This professional networking giant
was founded in December 2002 and was officially launched for public use in May 2003. LinkedIn is open for worldwide use and as of August 2010 LinkedIn reported over seventy five million users. This site is multilingual which enhances its international appeal. The site caters to English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and French speaking users.
LinkedIn is comparable to the other social marketing networks in that you make connections to other people. These connections may be classmates, coworkers, colleagues or other friends in business. This is a great place for not only larger corporations but also smaller businesses as well as self employed individuals and freelance workers.
Lets face it, the employment market has become pretty brutal in the recent years and many job-seekers have lamented that they wished that they knew somebody that knew that certain somebody that could help them get a job. LinkedIn makes that possible. It is a great resource for both the job seeker and the employer.
For the job seeker, there are several companies that advertise openings right on the network. You are able to follow companies that you are interested in working for. This allows you can do some research on the company, read reviews and feedback about the company, and follow that companys growth, including employment opportunities. So as a job seeker, make sure that your profile is accurate and free of any errors. This may be your first introduction to your perspective employer.
For employers LinkedIn provides a place to find new employees. You can view the previous employment of prospects and you can also see some feedback and recommendations of people who are interested in your company. Social media tells a lot about a person and you can learn how technically savvy they are and what level of netiquette they practice. Employing those that are tech savvy is very important to todays businesses.
LinkedIn also allows you to connect with former classmates and colleagues and see where they are in business. You never know when you might have a friend in a business that you need. You may need a lawyer and of course a lawyer needs clients. This is an incredible networking tool. Its definitely better than rummaging through thousands of business cards or having your business card end up at the bottom of someones pile.
Karriann Graf is a Social Media Manager/Strategist for small businesses and real estate professionals. Her focus is to help you learn about the best Social Media methods to connect with your clients and customers and increase your revenue. http://www.karrianngraf.com
