The Social Media Stock Market: The New Wave of Investing!

The Social Media Stock Market: The New Wave of Investing!: The Social Media Stock Market! By Steven Friley I have been following LinkedIn ( lnkd ) a social media company , since May 18th, 2...

The Social Media Stock Market: LinkedIn Valuation!

The Social Media Stock Market: LinkedIn Valuation!: LinkedIn – Analysis are Improving – Valuation Based on “The People Principle” LinkedIn Climbing Again as Answers to Much Need Valuation ...

Facebook Eyes $100 Billion Valuation in '12 IPO.

Facebook is reportedly targeting an initial public offering of $10 billion as early as April that would value the social-networking king at a whopping $100 billion.

The gaudy numbers being floated around for the potential IPO underscore the enormous anticipation  for a Facebook IPO, which has spawned great demand for offerings of other next-generation Internet companies like Groupon (GRPN) and LinkedIn (LNKD).

According to The Wall Street Journal, after resisting calls to go public for years, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook is targeting a time frame of April to June 2012 for an IPO.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who would make an estimated $24 billion if the company IPO’d with a $100 billion market cap, is warming to the idea of going public, but hasn’t made any final decisions, the paper reported.

Still, the company is in talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the timing of its filing and is considering filing dates as early as this year, the Journal reported.

A $100 billion valuation would mark the largest IPO price tag ever by a tech or Internet company. It would easy dwarf the largest U.S. Internet IPO: Google’s (GOOG) 2004 debut that valued the search company at $23 billion.

The Social Media Stock Market: Facebook looking at $100b IPO!

The Social Media Stock Market: Facebook looking at $100b IPO!: Facebook preparing $100B IPO Joining LinkedIn as the newly forming Social Media Stock Market is BUILDING MOMENTUM! By Steven Friley ...

Gains In Near Future?

LinkedIn (LNKD) the most hyped stock of the Social Media Stocks, and definitely the most volatile. The stock took the market by storm when it more than doubled on the day of its IPO with a mindboggling market cap of nearly $12 billion and a price of $122.70. The stock then declined by nearly 50% in approximately one month, only to recover with very strong gains.

There have been many analysts to warn investors of this stock because of its high valuation compared to its fundamentals. Yet, because of its fast growth, investors have ignored and have continued to buy the stock regardless of its high valuation. They see the true value here.

There is more here then just fundamentals at work here, and what will the growth look like when the economy turns around! Investors see this potential as well as further acquisitions.

Facebooks Potential Fall IPO Filing Will Provide Insight on Needed Valuation!

Speculation is rising that Facebook might file for an IPO before 2012 itself. While valuations for the company have gone to as high as $100 billion in private markets, an initial registration statement is all it takes to provide a much clearer picture of how Facebook’s metrics are faring. Facebook leads in the global social networking arena, competing with the likes of LinkedIn (NASDAQ:LNKD) and MySpace.

LinkedIn has defied the odds!

Ken Sena, an analyst with Evercore Partners. said that despite LinkedIn's (LNKD) influx of insider shares on the market, ''there are some strong believers in the overall growth story here''.

At the outset, LinkedIn sold a small number of shares - less than 10 per cent of the total. This dearth of stock helped stoke initial demand and buffer the stock price.

On their first day of trading, LinkedIn shares jumped to $US94.25 each, from $US45.

Other technology start-ups have since followed LinkedIn's example. This month, Groupon sold 35 million shares in its initial public offering, roughly 5 per cent of the overall pool. The three-year-old daily-deals site sold its shares for $US20 but they had risen to $US26.11 by the close on the first day.

But a sudden infusion of shares into the market can dampen investor interest. In July, shares of web publishing company Demand Media dropped by more than 7 per cent after its insiders were allowed to sell their stakes.

When Google's stock lock-up ended in 2004, the company's share price dropped by 6.7 per cent.

i ASK “IS GOOGLE THE ONLY EXCEPTION ALLOWED, OR WILL LINKEDIN (LNKD) STEP UP AS THE NEW BIG BROTHER IN TOWN?”

LinkedIn has defied the odds. Attributing factor may be the 100 million subscribers.


In Comparison to Google, LinkedIn comes in with a price tag of $45.00 and 94 million shares, sporting 100 million users or (1 new user per second) as the CEO reports. The opportunity for growth is phenomenal! Debunking every negative rumor LinkedIn has remained stable. Investors are hungry for stocks they can understand and relate to and Social Media connects the investors with each other on a very personal yet professional level. Professional’s trained in evaluating the value of stocks seem to remain in a cloud of confusion as to how to evaluate the Social Media Stock Market.

Investors imagine a big payoff from social-media stocks!

Investors imagine a big payoff from social-media stocks, spurred by the hot initial public offerings of social-media stocks such as Groupon (GRPN, Trade ) and LinkedIn (LNKD, Trade ). They're expecting to cash in whenever Twitter, Facebook and others go public.

Then there are the plays such as Nutrisystem and Google that maybe touch on social media but aren't necessarily social media stocks. For someone looking for a pure play on social media, part of the idea is that all stocks in the sector should benefit when a popular company like Facebook goes public and makes a big splash. It's hard to see how or why Nutrisystem makes the connection (having cool apps probably should not be enough), or how the social-media component of Google will move the giant stock.

Google, one of the top 10 holdings in the Global X fund, also highlights another fundamental concern for investors -- while they can't necessarily get a pure play on social media companies, they'll find issues like Google and Sina in plain-vanilla technology funds. That kind of fund will be less volatile than a niche issue.

LinkedIn Stock Sale Sees Strong Demand!

LinkedIn Stock Sale Sees Strong Demand!



NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--LinkedIn Corp.'s (LNKD) share price jumped as much as 7.2%, even after the company added more equity to the market, as investors still appear interested in purchasing the social-networking company despite concerns about the stock's valuation. 


About eight million LinkedIn shares came to market Thursday, with 1.3 million coming from the company and 6.7 million from insiders and early holders. The secondary offering, which followed the company's successful debut in May, roughly doubled the company's float, or the number of its shares available for trading. 


The supply of LinkedIn shares is set to continue rising as lock-up agreements requiring insiders to hold their shares are set to expire in coming months. 


The company made $92.3 million from the sale of its 1.3 million shares. LinkedIn has said the stock sale was designed to bolster its "capitalization and financial flexibility" as well as increase its public float. 

LinkedIn's shares have had a wild ride since its initial public offering priced at $45. The stock more than doubled on its first day and closed as high as $109.97 in mid-July before falling to the low $70s in August amid broad market turmoil. 

LinkedIns Stock Sale Could Signal Resource Crunch

The secondary offering of around 1.3 million new shares can send out a signal that LinkedIn intends to pursue heavy marketing investments in the near future as well, requiring additional cash sources for the same.


In addition to its growth outlook, the public float will essentially double with this secondary offering, which could weigh on the share price from the perceived overhang of future sales while providing more shares available for shorting. To short, traders need to borrow the shares and the small float so far has been this difficult for any large funds to undertake.


Since it went public, LinkedIn has incurred significant marketing and promotion related expenses, which have contributed a big role in the steep expansion in its subscriber base. For the first 9 months of 2010 and 2011, marketing expenses grew from 24% to around 32% as a percentage of revenue.

LinkedIn Pricing of Its Follow-On Offering

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE:LNKD) announced the pricing of 8,750,000 shares of its Class A common stock at $71.00 per share in a follow-on public offering. In addition, the underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,312,500 additional shares of Class A common stock from LinkedIn to cover over-allotments, if any. LinkedIn will sell approximately 1,300,000 shares in the offering; the remaining shares will be sold by existing stockholders. As part of the underwriting procedures, all selling stockholders, as well as all officers and directors, have agreed to lock-up agreements for a period of 90 days following the offering.

The principal purposes of this offering are to raise capital for the company, facilitate an orderly distribution of shares and increase the company's public float. The proceeds of the primary portion of the offering will be used to provide additional working capital for LinkedIn, including further expansion of its product development and field sales organizations, for capital expenditures and potential strategic acquisitions or investments.

LinkedIn outlines details of secondary offering

LinkedIn outlines details of secondary offering 


By Rex Crum






SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- LinkedIn Corp. has given an idea of just who will benefit from its upcoming secondary stock offering, as the online professional networking company updated its plans to sell 8 million shares six months after its high-profile IPO debut.


In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, LinkedIn (LNKD, Trade) said company officials and early investors plan to sell 6.7 million shares. The company itself with sell about 1.3 million shares, which would net a little under $93 million based on the stock's last trading price.


The stock sales will nearly double the amount of LinkedIn shares outstanding to 17.4 million shares.


The company said its SEC filing that it will use the proceeds of its sales "for working capital and general corporate purposes, including further expansion of our product development and field sales organizations, and for capital expenditures." LinkedIn also said it may use a portion of the proceeds for acquisitions or investments in "complementary businesses, technologies or other assets."


However, LinkedIn's founder and Chairman, Reid Hoffman, didn't file to sell any of his almost 19 million shares, and will remain the company's largest shareholder with almost 22% of LinkedIn's stock.


Since going public with an IPO at $45 a share in May, LinkedIn's stock as closed as high as $109.97 on July 15.

Social Media Get An ETF, With Heavy International Exposure

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Investors in the first exchange-traded fund for social media--set to be launched on Tuesday--will not only buy into Groupon Inc. (GRPN), LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) and similar companies, but will also get significant international exposure, particularly to China.

The Global X Social Media Index exchange-traded fund is expected to start trading Nov. 15 on the Nasdaq, under the symbol SOCL. Tracking 25 stocks, including some of this year's most closely watched initial public offerings, the fund aims to be "a pretty simple way to make sure you're exposed to the full sector," said Global X Funds chief executive Bruno del Ama in an interview. It also promises a more volatile ride than broader technology ETFs. During Friday's light-volume stock-market surge, the Nasdaq Composite gained 2%, but LinkedIn rose 2.7%, characteristic of the exaggerated moves seen in brand-new tech stocks that face considerable growth expectations.

Investors' hopes for social-media stocks have surged this year amid well-received initial public offerings such as LinkedIn's, but the public markets still don't have Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., the twin heavyweights of U.S. social media.

That is one reason the Global X ETF will have a surprisingly high international exposure. At least for the time being, there is more exposure to Chinese social-media companies than to Silicon Valley, since large social-media companies are in several cases more established in public markets overseas.


-By Brendan Conway, Dow Jones Newswires

Update:

The ETF is slated to add new social-media stocks after their IPOs, and won't be able to buy them beforehand, meaning it won't benefit from the first-day pop seen in several of this year's social-media offerings. LinkedIn soared 109% on its first day of trading in May. It will be seeded with $1.5 million in capital ahead of Tuesday's open, a Global X representative said.

LinkedIn: 2011 Technology Award Winner

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Nov. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn Corporation have been named the Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur Of The Year,  2011 Technology Award winners. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year is the country's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The award encourages entrepreneurial activity and recognizes leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/53268-ernst-and-young-eoy-technology-winner.

Linkedin: Could lead the game!

Linkedin (LNKD) generated $243 million revenue in 2010 with market capitalization as high as $8 billion. Its trailing P/E ratio was a high 477. Because social networking sites are relatively new and hard to value. Facebook's popularity seemed to convince investors that Linkedin will follow the same path. There are many new social networking startup companies to try entering this market. 

Analysts estimated next year's growth of 1,066.7% for Linkedin compared to industry growth rate of 26.10% and S&P of 14.80%.


Low interest rates enable many startup companies to enter into the market. A few leaders are expected to remain and lead the game.

The Social Media Stock Market: The New Wave of Investing!

The Social Media Stock Market: The New Wave of Investing!: The Social Media Stock Market! By Steven Friley I have been following LinkedIn ( lnkd ) a social media company , scene May 18th, 20...

How LinkedIn is Driving Higher Engagement Levels!

LinkedIn has shown a strong record this quarter of introducing newer and simpler features such as the “Apply with LinkedIn” feature and “Company Status Updates“. 


Consequently, I don’t expect user engagement to suffer as a result of the fast growth in the company’s subscriber base, as LinkedIn should keep both users and employers busy with new products in the offing. At the end of the day, competitors have to be on their toes as the company keeps capturing a larger share of the recruitment market.

The New Wave of Investing!

The Social Media Stock Market!


By Steven Friley

I have been following  LinkedIn (lnkd) a social media company, since May 18th, 2011, in what has been a floundering stock market. LinkedIn had continued to sustain a price above $63 a share through this uncertainty. Social Media Stocks would seem to be the new opportunities in an uncertain market.

Social Media is a commodity of people. LinkedIn was the first of its kind, but diffidently it won't be the last. With Facebook and Zinga preparing to launch their IPO's sometime in the near future, which will change the landscape of The Stock Market as we know it.

LinkedIn has shown  growth in both numbers and members sense it's explosive entrance on to the stock market, and how can that not continue, you look at the numbers.

LinkedIn has raised 93 million in recent weeks with Reid Hoffman founder and chairman, holding on to all of his almost 19  million shares, what does he know that we don't? Why is LinkedIn doubling it's headquarters?


Could LinkedIn and Monster merge? To rival any job seeking company in the world, only time will tell, but growth seems to be the name of the game.

Rapid Subscriber Growth Keeps LinkedIns Stock at Frothy Levels

The greater visibility and numerous product upgrades have certainly helped LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) in keeping user adoption high with its members growing to over 130 million by the end of Q3 2011. 


While this growth certainly comes at the expense of high marketing costs, it's believed that LinkedIn should keep this expanding subscriber base engaged with its product initiatives. 

Research Report on LinkedIn Corporation

A Turn in Tide, Europe's New Deal - Research Report on LinkedIn Corporation and Greenhill & Co., Inc.


Today, www.WorldStreetFundamentals.com released its industry report highlighting LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) and Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL). Full fundamental and technical analysis is available at www.WorldStreetFundamentals.com/Reports.php?id=LNKD+GHL.

LinkedIn Valuation!

Groupon is seen as a part of wave of Internet IPOs, including companies like Facebook and Zinga to follow ( Zynga Sets 100M-Share IPO At $8.50-$10/Shr), in the fast-growing Social Media Stock Market. One of the biggest this year was the debut of LinkedIn Inc. (LNKD), which also posted a big gain when the professional networking company went public in May.

[video] Will Groupon Pop After IPO?

WSJ's Rolfe Winkler joins the News Hub to discuss the Groupon IPO where it shares were priced at $20 each.

LinkedIn Corp. Results Earning.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE:LNKD) LinkedIn Corp is a professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in over 200 countries and territories.

Results: The company reported a loss of $1.6 million or 2 cents a share. In the same quarter a year ago, the company had a profit of $915,000 or 2 cents a share.

Revenue: Rose more than twofold to $139.5 million.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: The company beat the mean estimate of a loss of 4 cents a share. It topped the revenue estimate of $128 million.

Quoting Management: “LinkedIn had a strong third quarter, with significant, broad-based growth across all of our revenue streams, member engagement metrics, geographies, and sales channels,” said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. “Our results underscore the long-term strength of our global platform and our business model.”

Looking Forward: For the fiscal year, the average estimate has moved up from a loss of 9 cents a share to a profit of 3 cents over the last ninety days.

Now Is The Time!

Were LinkedIn investors NOT expecting a secondary share offering?

Despite third quarter results that blew away expectations, not to mention fourth quarter guidance that is also above what analysts had built into their models, LinkedIn stock is trading down 8% after hours. The reason appears to be that the company filed a new prospectus, making it official that, yes, insiders will be selling shares after the 6-month lock-up period expires November 21.

The filing discloses little information that shareholders really care about, such as how many shares will be sold or who will be selling them. Expect that information in an updated filing later.

But with the stock still trading somewhere north of 70 times next year’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, it’s no wonder some insiders want to lock in gains.

–Rolfe Winkler