LinkedIn Files for an IPO

LinkedIn, the popular social network for professionals, has finally confirmed that it is going public. The company will file for an IPO though it hasn't said when or at what valuation. It has revealed some numbers and, though revenue and net income are not spectacular, they are on the rise. And there are other interesting details in the Securities and Exchange filling as well.

"LinkedIn Corporation announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock," the company wrote.

"The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. A portion of the shares will be issued and sold by LinkedIn, and a portion will be sold by certain stockholders of LinkedIn," it explained.

The company plans to raise $175 million in the initial public offering. It's not a huge sum and LinkedIn could probably manage to get more than that, with the pent up interest for investing in social networking sites, but it's a nice round figure to be split between the company and the current shareholders.

While there is no official number, LinkedIn is currently trading on the secondary markets valued at $2.5 billion and there's likely to be a rise in price as the day of the IPO approaches.

LinkedIn started making money in 2010. In the first nine months of the year, LinkedIn made $1.85 million in profits from $161.4 million in revenue. Considering that it brought in just $80.8 million for the full year of 2009 and lost money in the process, 2010's figures are looking good.

However, $1.85 million in profits is not going to impress anyone, especially at a time when Facebook is valued at over $50 billion, Groupon is rumored to be looking at a $15 billion IPO and so on.

Still, the site has 90 million users, 65 million of which visit the site at least once a month. While the company hasn't set a date, the IPO is very likely to close before the end of 2011.