LinkedIn plans to raise as much as $175 million in an initial public offering, the first major social networking site to plan its stock market debut.
LinkedIN, which runs the largest networking site for professionals, filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. It is widely believed that LinkedIn expects to raise about $200 million in the offering.
Barring any SEC issue, the 7-year-old company with 1,000 employees and 90 million users could go public in the next several months in one of the most anticipated offerings of the year. Investors have been clamoring for shares of the privately held company which has an implied value of $2.5 billion on private trading exchange SharesPost.
LinkedIn does not have the global girth of Facebook, which has more than 600 million users, but it has carved out a profitable niche in helping people hunt for jobs, recruit new employees or find industry experts.
