Professional social network LinkedIn has just submitted its S-1 filing with the SEC, indicating that it will file for a public offering. The maximum proposed total offering price is $175 million but this is just a placeholder amount. The company also announced the filing on its blog.
In terms of revenue, during the nine months ended September 30, 2010, LinkedIn’s net revenue doubled to $161 million from $80.6 during the same period in 2009. Net income for the first nine months of 2010 came in at $10 million.
LinkedIn’s total net revenue in 2009 was $120 million, which LinkedIn obviously surpassed in 2010. The company took a $3.9 million loss in terms of net income, with 2010 as the first profitable year for the network. As of September 30, 2010, LinkedIn had $89.6 million in cash. The company currently has 990 employees and over 90 million members.
LinkedIn also shed light on its revenue breakdown by source. According to the filing, 41 percent of 2010 revenue came hiring solutions ($65.9 million), 32 percent came from marketing ($51.4 million); and 27 percent came from premium subscriptions ($44.1 million). Net revenue from LinkedIn’s hiring solutions products increased $42.2 million, or 178 percent from 2009 to 2010.
Other interesting things to note from the filing, with regard to LinkedIn’s risks:
“We expect our revenue growth rate to decline, and as we continue to invest for future growth, we do not expect to be profitable on a GAAP basis in 2011.”
“The number of our registered members is higher than the number of actual members, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members… If the number of our actual members does not meet our expectations or we are unable to increase the breadth and frequency of our visiting members, then our business may not grow as fast as we expect, which will harm our operating and financial results and may cause our stock price to decline.”
In terms of competition, LinkedIn says this in the document:
Other companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter could develop competing solutions or partner with third parties to offer such products. We face competition from a number of smaller companies in international markets, such as Xing in Germany and Viadeo in France, that provide online professional networking solutions, as well as Internet companies in the customer relationship management market, such as Salesforce.com (Chatter and Jigsaw).
With respect to acquisitions, LinkedIn paid $560,000 for mSpoke and $3.9 million for ChoiceVendor.