LinkedIn IPO Doubles

POSTED May 19, 2011

MOUNTAIN VIEW -- LinkedIn, a social networking site for business professionals, saw its IPO welcomed by Wall Street by more than doubling in its first day of trading (Symbol: LNKD).

LinkedIn priced its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange at $45 per share after raising its price from $30. Shares in the company rocketed at its open Thursday morning to $83 and traded as high as $122.70 per share before closing at $94.25. The market capitalization for the company is $8.9 billion after its first day of trading.

LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 100 million members in over 200 countries and territories. The site launched on May 5, 2003.

The company sold 7,840,000 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $45.00 per share. A total of 4,827,804 shares are being offered by LinkedIn Corporation, and a total of 3,012,196 shares are being offered by selling stockholders.

In addition, LinkedIn Corporation has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,176,000 shares to cover over-allotments, if any. LinkedIn will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

The bookrunning managers of the offering are Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. Allen & Company LLC and UBS Securities LLC are the co-managers.