There’s seems to be quite a bit of good news from the LinkedIn camp, as the company reportedly raised an additional $88 million in a stock sale of 1.27 million shares. Investors and insiders alike also got their share of the feast, by cashing out 7.5 million shares, in an offering held last week. The shares were sold at $71 each, which is not very far off from the closing price of $71.56
LinkedIn immediately experienced quite a rise in price per stock, going up with 5% and reaching $74.92 after adding a nice 8 million to the market, demonstrating that investors too, not just average people, love social media.
You might wonder who was the big winner in all this big business game. Well, undoubtedly it was CEO Jeff Weiner who, after paying the investment baking fees, cashed in a total of $26 million from selling his 373,000 shares. And if you think that’s a lot of shares to sell, think again. The man still has 2.3 million left.
After the sale was done and everybody was happy, it was time for LinkedIn to announce what it was planning to do with the money. The answer to that question? Fueling expansions of its offerings around the globe. As it is well known, the business oriented social network hasn’t been doing so well in the last quarter, even if its revenue doubled. Some voices pointed out that’s because the company was spending too much on growth. LinkedIn makes money by advertising and by charging fees for additional information and access to some profiles on the website.
