LinkedIn to sell shares in IPO

Professional networking website LinkedIn Corp. plans to sell shares to investors for $32 to $35 each in an initial public offering, one of the first for a major U.S. social networking site. The company says the offering could raise up to $274.4 million. LinkedIn estimates that its net proceeds, based on an IPO price of $33.50 per share, would be about $146.6 million after expenses. LinkedIn’s debut later this month could pave the way for other popular online services that connect people with common interests—Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, for example—to go public. LinkedIn, which focuses on job-related connections, has more than 100 million members. Facebook is much larger, with more than 600 million. Facebook has signaled that it’s likely to file its IPO plans by the end of April 2012. Most of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from fees that it charges for recruiters and businesses that want expanded access to the website to help fill job openings. The company also sells online ads. Last year, LinkedIn posted net income of $3.4 million on revenue of $243.1 million. In the first three months of this year, its revenue more than doubled from the same period a year ago.