Depending on who you ask, today's IPO of the social network forprofessionals, LinkedIn, could be either a good thing or a badthing.
On one hand, the company represents everything that's differentabout the second tech boom. It has survived a digital eternity,while countless others have started and failed in the meantime. Theuser base is large, and the platform continues to evolve to thisday. It's also the first social network to go public, deserving dueto a combination of growing user base of more than 100 millionmembers, and increasing revenue, which should top $400 million in2011.
On the other hand, it may have over-valued itself at $4.5billion, on the high end of the previously announced $42 to $45 pershare range they were considering. For a company which earned $243in revenue for 2010, this valuation seems aggressive. Also, back inJanuary, they were planning a lower cost of $32 to $35 per share,and there seem to be no clear reasons for the major uptick invaluation.
In all fairness, LinkedIn is not satisfied with simply being theFacebook of the business world. The concept of just creating andviewing profiles doesn't fit their strategy, they want the site toprovide its users with things to do. CEO Jeff Weiner isn't shy aboutsharing his vision to change "the way people work."
This kind of future outlook bucks the concepts that failed techfirms in the 90s, which had no clear idea of where internet usagewas heading. Also, there are signs that LinkedIn may actually beunderestimating it's financial forecast for the next few years.
Some analysts see a different situation. The hefty price tag oncurrent tech companies seems eerily similar to a bubble, which couldimpact upcoming IPOs.
Either way, it's hard to deny LinkedIn's impact on the community.Here in New Orleans, there are 97,308 members which show up in asearch of the area. This is arguably the largest online network ofprofessionals for the market. Clearly, people use and like theproduct. Today we'll find out if people are buying shares of it.
People who take linkedin and facebook seriously deserve to suffer serious career damage. Social networks are bully networks for social retards. If a bully decides to complain, the social networks panic and censor you but if you fight back, they automatically get bullied themselves. They are brought to you by aghadhimmics whose patron saint was Walt Whitman, the guy who only had sex with himself and believed in the Gnostic Gospels. Those who use lint tin and futz book are narcissist masochist clowns governed by affectation. Is a vulture capitalist who only invests in firms which appear as friends of friends really exercising the fiduciary responsibility he is paid for? Do we forget a quarter century ago these banksters patted themselves on the back that firing Steve Jobs was the right thing to do? Or when Gerry Carmen's GSA foisted IBM mainframes on everyone in the government just as the PC and interactive computing were dawning? The same nuts who consider it modern to make emailing a symptom to your doctor into a HIPAA violation. Or when they relied on the witchcraft of technical analysis instead of the hard work of market fundamental, stealing instead of inventing even that, and concentrating more on the imitation than substance, causing the markets to crash? Or banksters who shell game inconsistent products, shifting fees and agreements by surprise, because their autopilot brains were unable to comprehend what real service is? How can you trust people who submit to affectations instead of genuine reality? Given how such fads ran amok in the recent crisis, such individuals should be denied serious employment in the future. Social networking is a bully bubble that needs to be shut down before it bankrupts all of us. That’s why all the idiot hedge funds donated to Obama!
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