5 ms·

LinkedIn Raises $53 Million at $1 Billion Valuation

13 points by markbao 18y ago

staunch 18y ago
If they add a way to downgrade your account they might see a huge drop in revenue :-)
apexauk 18y ago
Linkedin: $53M @ $1BN valuation - 23M 'active monthly users', $100M/year revenue Slide: $50M @ $550M valuation - "134M global unique visitors/month", ..revenue? Meebo: $25M @ ~$200M - ~2M monthly uniques, ~$1M revenue (I think - recall reading somewhere..) What are the main driving factors behind each of the big value investments? The perceived quality/worth of LinkedIn's userbase? The fact that they're already monetising? ($1bn = 10x multiple on yearly turnover..)
- rms 18y ago
  For LinkedIn, the most important thing is definitely their very real revenue coming from their huge CPM rates. >$15CPM, I've heard. Slide's ridiculous valuation comes from their reach and the idea that eventually someone has to figure out how to monetize social networking eyeballs. When (if) that happens, Slide will be in a great position. Meebo is kind of neat and isn't trying very hard with revenue.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
bayareaguy 18y ago
Why would they need to raise only 53M if they were profitable? They supposedly take in 100M a year. Are they spending a lot more than that???
- rms 18y ago
  it's free money... why not?
  - markbao 18y ago
    But it's not... it's equity.
    - condor 18y ago
      unless they value the equity they're giving up less than the cash . . .
    - rms 18y ago
      There is a recession right now, sometimes it is a good idea to just raise money when you can, especially when the dilution doesn't really effect anything.
- gscott 18y ago
  I was thinking the same thing. I believe some people might have wanted to cash out there positions and it took outside money to do it.
- systems 18y ago
  Okay, there is a simple answer to this. Companies have various sources of financing, some considered better than others. They can take a bank loan ... They can buy on credit ... buy something, pay for it several months later is a canonical form of financing They can sell bonds ... They can offer shares ... There is normally competition between these forms of finance, and i heard banks usually try to offer the most competitive finance offer, so believe it or not banks loans are usually the best ... linkdln will probably have to work harder for those 53M than if they were a loan Finally, financing one firm from its own revenues, I believe is called auto-finance , or something like that, ... and beside the fact that they probably will and do take a portion of their revenues for self-finance ... they probably need more money to expand, and have seek other ways. I am not sure thought how auto-finance compare to other forms of financing, but i think its one of the best and least expensive .... i need to look more to it, you can learn more about this stuff from the books about finance etc ... :)

13 points by markbao 18y ago

If they add a way to downgrade your account they might see a huge drop in revenue :-)

Linkedin: $53M @ $1BN valuation - 23M 'active monthly users', $100M/year revenue Slide: $50M @ $550M valuation - "134M global unique visitors/month", ..revenue? Meebo: $25M @ ~$200M - ~2M monthly uniques, ~$1M revenue (I think - recall reading somewhere..) What are the main driving factors behind each of the big value investments? The perceived quality/worth of LinkedIn's userbase? The fact that they're already monetising? ($1bn = 10x multiple on yearly turnover..)

rms 18y ago
For LinkedIn, the most important thing is definitely their very real revenue coming from their huge CPM rates. >$15CPM, I've heard. Slide's ridiculous valuation comes from their reach and the idea that eventually someone has to figure out how to monetize social networking eyeballs. When (if) that happens, Slide will be in a great position. Meebo is kind of neat and isn't trying very hard with revenue.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]

bayareaguy 18y ago

Why would they need to raise only 53M if they were profitable? They supposedly take in 100M a year. Are they spending a lot more than that???

rms 18y ago
it's free money... why not?
- markbao 18y ago
  But it's not... it's equity.
  - condor 18y ago
    unless they value the equity they're giving up less than the cash . . .
  - rms 18y ago
    There is a recession right now, sometimes it is a good idea to just raise money when you can, especially when the dilution doesn't really effect anything.
gscott 18y ago
I was thinking the same thing. I believe some people might have wanted to cash out there positions and it took outside money to do it.
systems 18y ago
Okay, there is a simple answer to this. Companies have various sources of financing, some considered better than others. They can take a bank loan ... They can buy on credit ... buy something, pay for it several months later is a canonical form of financing They can sell bonds ... They can offer shares ... There is normally competition between these forms of finance, and i heard banks usually try to offer the most competitive finance offer, so believe it or not banks loans are usually the best ... linkdln will probably have to work harder for those 53M than if they were a loan Finally, financing one firm from its own revenues, I believe is called auto-finance , or something like that, ... and beside the fact that they probably will and do take a portion of their revenues for self-finance ... they probably need more money to expand, and have seek other ways. I am not sure thought how auto-finance compare to other forms of financing, but i think its one of the best and least expensive .... i need to look more to it, you can learn more about this stuff from the books about finance etc ... :)