Why LinkedIn’s IPO will hand even more control to its founder
Would you trust this man with your money?
If you are thinking of buying shares in the LinkedIn IPO, the answer had better be “Yes”. Reid Hoffman owns a fifth of the social network for professionals. But the little-noticed effect of the company’s unusual share structure is that his control is likely to keep going up… and up… Read more
Social network LinkedIn is hoping for a $3.3bn valuation at its initial public offering later this month. Lex’s Stuart Kirk and Sarah O’Connor discuss whether the company is worth 13 times its revenues. Read more
LinkedIn, the professional networking site with 90 million users, announced a new product today that aims to transform the site from an occasional directory into a daily social destination. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Tech news from around the web:
Facebook profile page takes on LinkedIn
Facebook has announced a new look for its members’ profile pages, which, while largely cosmetic, does encourage users to add more information on their work interests.
In upgrading to my new profile page, I was prompted to add my current work information, a move that puts the 500m-strong social network in closer competition with the LinkedIn service. Read more
Twitter and LinkedIn team up. Just like peanut butter and chocolate?
Twitter and LinkedIn will start letting users sync their accounts starting Tuesday, allowing posts from LinkedIn to appear in Twitter streams, and vice versa. It’s a move aimed at the growing base of business users who take advantage of social networking sites.
LinkedIn, with more than 50m members, is the largest professional network on the web. Twitter, meanwhile, has become a favourite social site for brands, marketers and self promoters (not to mention idle worker bees).
The partnership makes a good bit of sense, and could prove useful. Read more
Ning raises $15m at $750m valuation
Marc Andreessen is on a roll. Earlier this month he raised a $300m venture capital fund with his business partner, Ben Horowitz. Now Ning, the social networking startup he co-founded, has raised $15m from Lightspeed Venture Partners at a whopping $750m valuation, according to All Things Digital.
Valuing Ning at $750m seems more than generous, considering the company has never said it is profitable. Even before the economic crisis, these would have been favourable terms. Slide, which makes applications for social networks, last January raised money at a $550 valuation, while LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, got a $1bn valuation last June. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
