Top 10 Reasons For a LinkedIn IPO
1. Businesses that can cut costs for clients can IPO in a recession. LinkedIn cuts the cost of business development, recruiting and finding experts.
2. The best businesses IPO when markets are down. It shows strength. Who cares if it takes 12 months for markets to pickup? Insiders will be locked-in for a while anyway.
3. Facebook cannot IPO. Their $15bn valuation won’t wash with public investors and they can hardly do a down round. So LinkedIn gets the mindshare and public currency to win the next round.
4. Public currency is needed to buy local business networking sites such as Xing and Viadeo, where non-English languages make organic expansion hard.
5. LinkedIn keeps innovating, such as their recent move into expert networks to compete with Gerson Lehman Group. This move is an obvious revenue earner.
6. LinkedIn’s revenue model is not tied to advertising and is therefore more recession proof.
7. The bloom is off the Facebook rose, so strike while the iron is hot (sorry about mixed metaphors Ed)
8. We all need some cheery news amidst all this recession talk.
9. Somebody needs to show that public markets are suitable for high growth, high tech businesses and not just dividend-spouting oil companies.
10. Because I forecast that they would and I would love to be proved right.
Finally, why do we always need 10 items on these lists?
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We use 10 of whatever because, as George Carlin says, they make for knowledgeable-looking lists. As if there was some odd perfection in having 10 of something.
I think LinkedIn is one of the few truly useful socnets and quite possibly more the money-maker than FaceBook. Hopefully corporate clients mean they wouldn't be as careless with private information as FaceBook is.
It's useful site but I hardly see mainstream using it on a regular basis
Below-average post. It does not sound fair to mix in reasons that are not in LinkedIn's interest. Out of 10, only 2-3 reasons make sense.
watch this for adding 1 more item : )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhVWJgIzftE
: ))
@ #3 ... over 1/2 the reasons are direct, real, reasons why linkedin should IPO.. the rest still can't be argued against... (except maybe #10, hehehe)
still, good list... not sure what your 11th reason could have been had you decided to go spinal tap on us (per #4 suggestion ;) )...
Thanks - Spinal Tap 11 is hilarious - I know that guy, sure of it, I was at school with him in England, cannot remember the bloke's name.
It's good reasons! :-)
I don't know if it is right...
Go Linkedin, go!!!
I think #5 (LinkedIn keeps innovating) is a stretch. LinkedIn has a long way to go in terms of innovation. I would still consider LinkedIn Web 1.0 or maybe 1.5. Looking at it from another perspective, because LinkedIn users are mostly older executives, they may not appreciate change too much.
I had no clue LI or Facebook could fetch such exorbitant multiples. It proves the internet bubble or tech bubble is still alive and people do tend to think of participating in such IPO as a get rich quick scheme. Anyway, recessions are not a good time to move your company into the capital market. You will rarely fetch a good initial launching price. The idea is not to show that you are recession proof; the idea is to show how much money you can collect to move your company forward, while ensuring that the initial public prices hold up and perhaps grow over a course of time. People do not want shocks and neither do not want to be surprised by Wall Street or from an analyst 10,000 miles away.
Ziaur Rahman
luckytoaccess@gmail.com
IITM
Dhaka
Those are 10 terrible reasons to IPO. Why don't you stick with tech posts and leave the finance to the people who actually know what they are talking about.