Friday, May 20, 2011

Spectacular IPO for LinkedIn

The IPO of the professional social network LinkedIn, one of the most important since the financial crisis, was triumphantly welcomed by investors Thursday in New York. For about half an hour after opening on Wall Street, brokers remained suspended at the first scoring title on the floor of the NYSE. They were not disappointed: the title LinkedIn soared since the first trading on the New York Stock Exchange, finishing at 94.25 dollars, more than twice its value of introduction (+ 109.44%) .

It climbed to 122.70 dollars at the height of the meeting. LinkedIn is the first major social network to test the public appetite of investors for a company like near and far to Facebook Groupon, Twitter and other Zynga. The jump of LinkedIn for his first day is the highest since that made by the Chinese internet engine Baidu.

Its share price had increased by 354% for its debut on the Nasdaq in 2005. Facebook, the California company LinkedIn allows users to create profile pages, but the site is used by the Internet as a business tool, to provide career information containing CV and other details. Wednesday, LinkedIn had placed 7.84 million shares at a price of $ 45, above the expected range, raising nearly $ 217 million.

A week earlier, the first price that the company had announced was between 32 and 35 dollars. The CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner, a new millionaire in fact, felt that we should not consider society as a standard for other big IPOs. Jeff Weiner, who has sold about 5% of its shares during the IPO, won $ 5.2 million.

On the basis of the last of LinkedIn, the rest of its stake in the company worth about $ 208 million. The co-founder of LinkedIn and former head of PayPal, Reid Hoffman, has pocketed $ 5.2 million by selling less than 1% of its securities. Its remaining 21.7% of voting rights, is now worth $ 1.8 billion.

The French group Viadeo, number two in the area behind LinkedIn, has renounced his side for the moment its proposed listing on the Stock Exchange. Should we see the emergence of a "bubble", while some reminisce already gearing 1990s? "Not yet," observes Bill Buhr, site of financial analysis Morningstar.

"You have to see what other companies will do. And also what will happen to LinkedIn. There is only one day." "You could say this is the beginning of a stage, which will take place over a year or two," adds the analyst.

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