LinkedIn IPO hit a high note on the first day of IPO, $94.25. The price range of the first trading day was between $80 and $122.70, far above the proposed price, $45.
There are many blogs and articles on this topic already, sour grapes, sweet lemons and covetousness alike. I am not an analyst and I am not here to offer my prediction of LinkedIn's stock performance. What I care is whether LinkedIn's going public is any indication of Silicon Valley's job market and next step in the World Wide Web Industry. One article I came across presented a rosy picture, claiming LinkedIn will be a $25 billion company by 2015.
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/linkedin-ipo-new-ipo-linkedin-revenue/5/19/2011/id/34648
It said in the article, "Let's say LinkedIn grows revenues at 95% in 2011, 75% in 2012, 60% in 2013, 45% in 2014, and 35% in 2015. That would put 2015 revenues at $2.6 billion. Doesn't seem crazy." Note that the majority of LinkedIn's revenue comes from corporate employment and human resource activities. (see LinkedIn S-1 amendment filing, http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000119312511064249/ds1a.htm) If the projected revenue comes true, it is indeed a pretty good picture for the job market. Furthermore, half of the active users of LinkedIn are in US and the majority of LinkedIn users are in the western world. For LinkedIn to grow by leaps and bounds, it will depend a lot on the health of US and Western Europe's economies.
What if LinkedIn can grow independent of US economy? That is even better. To me, that means the social media model works and more jobs will be created in this domain. Well, that is too rosy even for a dreamer like me. I was tracking Monster's US employment index in 2007 and 2008, before Fed acknowledged recession in late 2008. Although employment index is not a formal economic indicator, it was an hair-raising experience to observe the close correlation between the employment activities and the livelihood of US economy during that period.
The Economist believes that Silicon Valley has another Internet bubble. (http://www.economist.com/node/18681576) If I count the first Internet boom from 1998 to 2000, Web 2.0 hype from 2006 to 2007, and this new bubble of 2011, I see tides, not bubbles. If LinkedIn can keep up a decent rate of growth, we will see more such bubbles in the future. Or high tides, if I may.
There are many blogs and articles on this topic already, sour grapes, sweet lemons and covetousness alike. I am not an analyst and I am not here to offer my prediction of LinkedIn's stock performance. What I care is whether LinkedIn's going public is any indication of Silicon Valley's job market and next step in the World Wide Web Industry. One article I came across presented a rosy picture, claiming LinkedIn will be a $25 billion company by 2015.
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/linkedin-ipo-new-ipo-linkedin-revenue/5/19/2011/id/34648
It said in the article, "Let's say LinkedIn grows revenues at 95% in 2011, 75% in 2012, 60% in 2013, 45% in 2014, and 35% in 2015. That would put 2015 revenues at $2.6 billion. Doesn't seem crazy." Note that the majority of LinkedIn's revenue comes from corporate employment and human resource activities. (see LinkedIn S-1 amendment filing, http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000119312511064249/ds1a.htm) If the projected revenue comes true, it is indeed a pretty good picture for the job market. Furthermore, half of the active users of LinkedIn are in US and the majority of LinkedIn users are in the western world. For LinkedIn to grow by leaps and bounds, it will depend a lot on the health of US and Western Europe's economies.
What if LinkedIn can grow independent of US economy? That is even better. To me, that means the social media model works and more jobs will be created in this domain. Well, that is too rosy even for a dreamer like me. I was tracking Monster's US employment index in 2007 and 2008, before Fed acknowledged recession in late 2008. Although employment index is not a formal economic indicator, it was an hair-raising experience to observe the close correlation between the employment activities and the livelihood of US economy during that period.
The Economist believes that Silicon Valley has another Internet bubble. (http://www.economist.com/node/18681576) If I count the first Internet boom from 1998 to 2000, Web 2.0 hype from 2006 to 2007, and this new bubble of 2011, I see tides, not bubbles. If LinkedIn can keep up a decent rate of growth, we will see more such bubbles in the future. Or high tides, if I may.
