On January 27, 2011, LinkedIn officially filed to go public, registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are the official underwriters for the offering, with Allen & Co and UBS of Switzerland the secondary managers. LinkedIn will be the first of an expected string of Internet IPOs in the coming months.
The IPO is widely seen as a test of investor’s ambitions that can be applied to other social networking sites such as Facebook, which is also expected to go public this year. Founded in 2002 by PayPal executive Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn launched on May 5, 2003. As of January 2011, the company boasts a network of over ninety million professionals around the world, including professionals from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies.
The company’s phenomenal success has resulted in the investing public eagerly anticipating an IPO. Now that the IPO is official, investors are now awaiting a date. While the company has not officially said what the number of shares will be or the price range of those shares, according to documents filed with the SEC, the IPO is expected to value the company at two billion dollars, with a profit of $175 million for LinkedIn.
This comes amid concerns over the company’s revenue streams. Posted revenues have only turned positive in the last seven quarters, and LinkedIn has stated publicly that it expects revenue growth to slow as the company focuses on private growth. This could impact the precise mechanics of an IPO, with implications for Facebook should it choose to go public, also.
At any rate, LinkedIn performs a valuable service for professionals, and that may carry the company to success with a public offering. The date is expected to be sometime within the next several weeks, as investor hunger cannot be put off forever.
