Linkedin files S-1, path to IPO - "Relationships Matter"

LINKEDIN CORPORATION

We are the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in over 200 countries and territories. Through our proprietary platform, members are able to create, manage and share their professional identity online, build and engage with their professional network, access shared knowledge and insights, and find business opportunities, enabling them to be more productive and successful.

We believe we are the most extensive, accurate and accessible network focused on professionals. We believe we are creating significant value for professionals, enterprises and professional organizations worldwide by connecting talent with opportunity at massive scale. We believe that our members and the enterprises and professional organizations that use our platform are only beginning to leverage the power and potential of our network and its underlying database of professional information.


We have achieved significant growth as our network has scaled and as we have expanded our product offerings. In the nine months ended September 30, 2010, net revenue increased $80.6 million, or 100%, and adjusted EBITDA increased $22.3 million, or 238%, over the nine months ended September 30, 2009.

Customers

In 2010, our marketing solutions were used by more than 33,000 customers, and our hiring solutions were used by nearly 3,900 companies. No individual customer represented more than 5% of our net revenue in 2008, 2009 or the nine months ended September 30, 2010.

Competition

We face significant competition in all aspects of our business. Specifically, we compete for members, enterprises and professional organizations; the bases upon which we compete differ among these areas as discussed below.

• Members—Professional Networks. The market for online professional networks is new and rapidly evolving. 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). Because membership on our website is available at no cost, we don’t compete for members on the basis of price. Instead, we compete primarily on the basis of the value and relevance of the products for professionals, ease of use and availability of our website and our products and solutions, and the total number of professional members and relevant data available.

•Enterprises and Professional Organizations—Recruiting. With respect to our hiring solutions, we compete with established online recruiting companies such as Monster+HotJobs and CareerBuilder, talent management companies, such as Taleo, and traditional recruiting firms. In this area, we compete primarily on the basis of the efficiency and usefulness of our solutions for enterprises and professional organizations, which are influenced by the number and engagement of our members.

•Enterprises and Professional Organizations—Advertising and Marketing. With respect to our marketing solutions, we compete with online and offline outlets that generate revenue from advertisers and marketers. In this area, we compete to attract and retain advertisers by giving them access to the most relevant and targeted audiences for their products or services.

Employees
As of December 31, 2010, we had 990 employees, consisting of 524 in engineering, product development and customer operations, 313 in sales and marketing, and 153 in general and administrative.

Link to S-1 here.