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LinkedIn IPO Red-Hot, Closes First Day of Trading Up 109% (LNKD)May 20, 2011 (SmarTrend(R) News Watch via COMTEX) -- LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE:LNKD) closed its first day of trading yesterday up 109% over its $45 per share IPO price, closing at $94.25 per share. The stock traded as high as $122.70 intra-day. The price gives the company a whopping valuation of $8.91 billion, for a company that had a net income of just $15 million in 2010, on revenues of $243 million. That was up 102% from the $120 million in total revenue reported for 2009. The bookrunning managers of the offering were Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Bank of America's (NYSE:BAC) Merrill Lynch, and J.P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM). Allen & Company LLC and UBS (NYSE:UBS) are the co-managers. "We spent a lot of time with the right kind of investors -- folks who understand the story, the fundamentals, who are in it for the long haul. That's our focus. We're in it for the long haul in terms of realizing the potential and opportunity of this platform. In terms of today's initial trades, we'll leave that to the marketplace. I wouldn't read too much into any one day of trading. We're in this for the long-term. As we continue to focus on executing our business, the fundamentals will be there and the stock price will take care of itself," LinkedIn's CEO Jeff Weiner said in an interview with Bloomberg. "On the acquisition front, we will probably stay toward the smaller end of that range, looking for talent and for technology that can accelerate our product roadmap. If we find potential tuck-ins that could be accretive on a top and bottom line basis, we would obviously consider those as well," he added. LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the Internet with more than 100 million members in over 200 countries and territories, which currently includes executives from every Fortune 500 Company. The company has a diversified business model with revenues coming from member subscriptions, advertising sales and hiring solutions. LinkedIn was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California. Write to Chip Brian at [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SmarTrend analyzes over 5,000 securities simultaneously throughout the trading day and provides its subscribers with trend change alerts in real time. To get a free trial of our trading calls and maximize your trading results, please visit http://www.MySmarTrend.com Get exclusive, actionable insight into how the market is expected to trend prior to market open with our free morning newsletter. Sign up at: http://www.MySmarTrend.com/signup |