LinkedIn Hires Jeff Weiner as CEO

Social networking service LinkedIn has announced a new CEO, Jeff Weiner replacing founder Reid Hoffman who temporarily held the position. The site is the fifth largest social network in the world with 42 million registered users and 15 million monthly unique visitors.

“LinkedIn was founded to harness the power of the internet to create a tool that would help individuals become more effective and successful professionals,” said Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman, LinkedIn. “Over the past six months, Jeff has done an exceptional job leading the company and I look forward to continuing the work that we have begun together.”

The move comes after former CEO Dan Nye left the company last December. He was replaced by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman but that was to be only a short term solution until a new CEO was found. Hoffman will still be chairman and will be involved in the day-to-day business at the company.

Jeff Weiner comes from a tumultuous period at Yahoo, where he was a top executive until his departure last year. Then, he served as EIR at both Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. Weiner joined LinkedIn as interim president in January 2009.

“Working closely with Reid and the team over the past six months exceeded all of my expectations coming into the company,” said Weiner. “I couldn’t be more excited about our progress to date, and the opportunity ahead of us.”

LinkedIn is expected to become cash flow positive sometime this year and is financially more stable than most social networks. The revenue stream will continue to come from three main sources: subscriptions, corporate products and advertising.