LinkedIn Corp
Latest LinkedIn Corp News and Updates

How Much Business Did LinkedIn Have in China? Company Changes Course

Why Decline in LinkedIn Stock Made It a Potential Target
LinkedIn’s stock, which traded at $269 in February 2015, fell to one of its lows of $101.11 in February 2016.

Why Salesforce Acquired Twin Prime
Salesforce continued its spree in December 2016 with its acquisition of Twin Prime, a startup focused on machine learning.

Why Oracle’s Marketing Cloud is integral to its growth
Oracle’s Marketing Cloud allows customers to run marketing campaigns and manage data related to those campaigns on web, social, mobile, and email.

Can Cisco Beat Its Own Revenue Forecast in Fiscal 3Q15?
Cisco is expected to announce its fiscal 3Q15 earnings on May 13. Cisco expects its year-over-year revenue growth to be 3%–5% in the quarter.

Blue Ridge Capital increases holding in SiriusXM
The third quarter of 2014 was by far the best for SiriusXM in terms of market penetration as well as increasing revenues.
Why Facebook expects revenue growth to slow in 4Q14
The technology sector in general is facing headwinds because the U.S. dollar is strengthening. Facebook earned about 54% of its revenues from international markets in the last quarter. As a result, a strengthening U.S. dollar impacts its revenues and margins.

Twitter’s Project Lightning Could Be Called ‘Moments’
Twitter’s Project Lightning will let users view a collection of tweets with images and videos of a specific event without following individual accounts that have tweeted on the event.

Facebook’s Q4 2014 earnings: Expect revenue growth and more
Facebook (FB) is expected to announce its Q4 2014 earnings on January 28, 2015. In this series, we’ll analyze how the last quarter of 2014 could turn out.

Facebook Has Proven to be a Game-Changer for the NASDAQ
Facebook has proven to be a game-changer by introducing the world to the concept of social networking, something quite unheard of in the Y2K era.

Will IBM Watson’s Foray into Financial Services Succeed in 2017?
IBM’s acquisitions to boost Watson Since its inception, IBM (IBM) has been betting heavily on Watson, its cognitive computing platform, to steer the company toward much-needed growth. As expected, Watson was IBM’s highlight in 2016 and is expected to be in 2017 as well. Considering IBM’s acquisitions to equip Watson in the healthcare space, namely […]

Did Microsoft’s Strong Revenue Growth Results Improve Its Margins?
In fiscal 1Q17, Microsoft’s gross margin stood at ~61.7%, as compared to ~64.7% in fiscal 1Q16. Intelligent Cloud contributed ~34% to total revenues.

Facebook plans to monetize WhatsApp’s large user base
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is often questioned about Facebook’s high-priced acquisition of WhatsApp, which generated revenue of only $20 million in 2013.

Battle for the Home Automation Market
Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google and Amazon (AMZN) are going for each other’s jugular in the home automation systems market.

Yahoo Is Looking to Increase User Engagement on Yahoo Mail
In addition to its partnership with Paperless Post, Yahoo (YHOO) also launched contact cards in Yahoo Mail to increase user engagement.
Must-know: Is Facebook performing strongly versus its comps?
Social media stocks performed well last year, with the Global X Social Media Index ETF (SOCL) up 65% from January 2013.
Facebook acquires virtual reality company Oculus VR for $2 billion
Facebook (FB) recently announced that it’s acquiring Oculus VR, the maker of a virtual reality headset, for a valuation of $2 billion.

LinkedIn Expects Slower Growth in Talent Solutions for 2016
LinkedIn expects its Talent Solutions segment to grow by 25%–26% YoY (year-over-year) in 2016 compared to growth of 30% YoY in 2015.

What Are Analysts’ Recommendations for Twitter?
As of March 21, 2016, Twitter (TWTR) has generated returns of -67.1% for the trailing 12 months and -7.8% in the trailing-one-month period.

Why did tech stocks like Twitter sell off on July 8, 2014?
Although the Dow Jones Index fell 0.7%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ (IXIC) index fell 1.4%. This was the second big tech stock sell-off in 2014.
Why is cloud computing such a fast-growing business?
With cloud computing, instead of keeping an organization’s data on its own server or updating applications, you use a service over the Internet from a remote location to store your information and use applications.

Why do Twitter and its social media peers attract investors?
People have been asking me over the past few weeks what my views are on the Twitter IPO (TWTR) as well as my view on Twitter as a general business.

Why Did Microsoft’s Stock Fall after LinkedIn Offer?
After Microsoft’s announcement, LinkedIn’s stock rose 47% to $192.21 while Microsoft’s stock fell 2.6% to $50.14 on June 13, 2016.

How Salesforce Gained Its Moat
Salesforce.com is a leader in the customer relationship management industry. The company has built its moat on the back of its network effect and strong brand.

Will Salesforce Continue Its Buying Spree in 2017?
Salesforce’s acquisition spree Earlier in this series, we discussed Salesforce’s (CRM) recent acquisition of Sequence. We also looked at why companies such as Salesforce and IBM (IBM) are increasingly drawn towards the digital agency space. Of late, Salesforce has been on an acquisition spree. Since 2006, Salesforce has made 44 acquisitions, according to Crunchbase. In the past […]

Will AppDynamics Acquisition Help Cisco’s Position in SaaS Space?
AppDynamics has managed to grow 50% on an annual basis. Moreover, 75% of AppDynamics customers make purchases based on a subscription-based model.

Why Salesforce Has to Be Ambitious in Revenue Growth
Salesforce pioneered SaaS, and since its launch, Salesforce has developed an impressive mix of cloud-based offerings.

Will Oracle’s Acquisition Spree Continue in 2017?
Calendar 2016 marks the second year on record in which tech deals accounted for the majority of M&As. Prior to 2016, 2000 saw the highest number of deals.

How Does Twitter Compare with Its Peers?
Twitter trades at lower multiples than its peers Earlier in this series, we discussed rumors of Twitter’s (TWTR) possible acquisition and how Salesforce (CRM), Google (GOOG), and The Walt Disney Company (DIS) could be contenders. In this part, we’ll compare Twitter’s value proposition with that of other companies in the social media space. As of […]

Which Social Media Platform Receives the Most Social Ad Spend?
Much like Google (GOOG), Facebook has remained successful in capitalizing on the user shift to mobile.

Microsoft Issued the Most High-Grade Bonds Last Week
Microsoft (MSFT) issued Aaa/AAA rated high-grade bonds worth $19.8 billion through seven parts on August 1, 2016.
Which Investments Have Hurt the Harbor Capital Appreciation Fund the Most in 2016?
The Harbor Capital Appreciation Fund Investor Class has tanked by 3.5% YTD in 2016, making it the second-worst performer YTD among our 12 funds.

Facebook’s Growth: Why Mobile Users Are the Key
Facebook’s (FB) mobile monthly active users (or MAUs) constitute about 91.5% of its total MAUs, which stood at 1.65 billion in 1Q16.

Will Microsoft Deal Boost LinkedIn’s Prospects?
LinkedIn’s major business division, Talent Solutions, faces macro headwinds in the EMEA and APAC regions.

Cisco’s Acquisitions Drive Its Collaboration Revenues
Earlier in 2016, Cisco completed the acquisition of European video conferencing startup Acano for $700 million in cash.

Why Is Twitter’s Stock Price Declining?
Social media platform Twitter (TWTR) is going through its toughest phase since its launch in July 2006. Twitter’s issues include a volatile stock price, stagnating user growth, the departure of key executives, and core product issues.

Could There Be a Competing Buyer for LinkedIn?
Microsoft paid a 50% premium to LinkedIn’s June 10 closing price. At 7.5x revenues and 75x EBITDA, Microsoft is paying a lot. LinkedIn is a unique property.

What’s the Rationale for the Microsoft-LinkedIn Merger?
LinkedIn will be a standalone entity within Microsoft. This transaction is part of Microsoft’s plan to focus on cloud-based offerings. It wants to rely less on PCs.

How Facebook Is Monetizing Instagram
With more than 400 million monthly active users (or MAU), Instagram now has 200,000 advertisers.

FBGRX’s Infotech Picks Surprise on the Downside in 1Q16
The Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund (FBGRX) fell 4.6% in 1Q16. Its one-year returns were -3.9%, placing it among the bottom three funds under review.

LinkedIn Streamlines the Process of Targeting Ads and Campaigns
LinkedIn (LNKD) invests aggressively in Sponsored Updates, with the aim of incorporating additional functionalities and streamlining the process of targeting ads for the marketers.

LinkedIn’s Efforts to Introduce New Features to Its Product Line
The leading professional networking site, LinkedIn (LNKD) is finding it difficult to keep its stock price up since it announced its 4Q15 earnings. The company’s shares have seen a significant fall of 43% to a three-year-plus low of $102.90.

How Facebook’s Improved Features Are Attracting More Users
Facebook (FB) is engaging more and more users with its set of features such as groups, events, and pages.

What Helped Salesforce Stock to Recover in February 2016?
Tableau Software’s (DATA) and LinkedIn’s (LNKD) issuance of weaker-than-expected guidance for 2016 caused technology stocks to fall like a ton of bricks in February 2016.

AddThis: The New Addition to Oracle’s Acquisition Portfolio
In early January 2016, Oracle (ORCL) announced the acquisition of AddThis.

Are Facebook Users Becoming Less Active?
Facebook (FB) has done well in growing its user base. Facebook’s worldwide monthly active users (or MAU) have grown from 1.35 billion in 3Q14 to 1.55 billion in 3Q15.

LinkedIn’s Operating Margin in 3Q15 Beats Facebook, Twitter
LinkedIn’s (LNKD) gross margin has been more or less flat year-over-year from 86.4% in 3Q13 to 86.8% in 3Q14 and 85.71% in 3Q15.

Twitter’s Revenue Growth in 3Q15 Beats Facebook, LinkedIn
Twitter’s (TWTR) revenues rose 199% from $106 million in fiscal 2011 to $317 million in fiscal 2012. Revenues then rose 109.78% year-over-year in fiscal 2013…

Expectations for Twitter’s New Moments Feature
Twitter’s new Moments feature could help to boost user growth for the company, which has been struggling to win new users and retain existing users.

LinkedIn 1Q15 Revenues and Earnings Below Expectations
Investors were clearly unhappy with the weak outlook that LinkedIn provided, as the company’s stock plunged by 20% after the earnings were announced.

Oracle Extended Its Social Cloud Support to Instagram
On March 13, 2015, Oracle (ORCL) announced that it updated its Social Cloud SRM (Social Relationship Management) platform to add support for Facebook’s Instagram.

LinkedIn Is a New Position for Point72 Asset Management
Point72 started a new position in LinkedIn during 4Q14. The fund held 612,600 LinkedIn shares. It accounts for 0.99% of the fund’s total 4Q14 portfolio.

Adobe launched Creative Talent Search
Creative Talent Search is a search tool that enables recruiters to find the talent they need. The tool also provides creative people with a platform for showcasing their portfolios.

Why advertisers prefer social media advertising
Currently, one of the most popular forms of advertising is social media advertising, which uses social media websites or networks to gain website traffic.

The pros and cons of the growing display advertising market
Display advertising is a type of online advertising that appears next to content on websites, instant messaging (or IM) applications, and email.

Slowdown in Salesforce’s subscription growth is a concern
The company’s annualized subscription billings growth of 12% has been declining consistently. Salesforce.com saw 68% subscription growth four years ago.
Coatue Management ups stake in Baidu
In 3Q14, Coatue Management added to its position in Baidu Inc. (BIDU). The stock accounted for 8.19% of the fund’s portfolio for the quarter.

Coatue Management increases stake in LinkedIn
In 3Q14, Coatue Management added to its position in LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD). The stock accounts for 7.36% of the fund’s portfolio for the quarter.
Why Facebook is managing strong digital ad growth
The main reason why Facebook has been able to grow its market share is the strong advertising revenue growth that it has experienced in the last few years.
Why Salesforce1 Community Cloud impacts Platform users
Salesforce1 Community Cloud enables customers to build and operate public websites and applications that are supported by its servers and bear resemblance to online communities. According to Salesforce.com (CRM), the community cloud is a $3.5 billion market.

Why increased cloud adoption helps Salesforce.com’s business
Salesforce.com (CRM) got ~94% of its fiscal 2014 and six months ending FY15 revenue from subscription and support fees. The fees are associated with cloud services. This implies that it has a huge investment in cloud-based application services. Salesforce.com offered solutions as a system for customer relationship management (or CRM) through cloud.
Why News Feed ads are driving an ad pricing increase at Facebook
News Feed ads have significantly higher engagement, click-through rates, and price per ad compared to right-hand column ads. So a higher proportion of ads appearing in News Feed drives up the overall average price per ad.

Social, mobile, analytics, and cloud is driving “big data” growth
Owing to the enormous digital data flow, there’s hardly any field that isn’t likely to be benefited by huge investments in “big data.”
Why Yahoo still struggles in the display advertising business
According to a report from eMarketer and as the previous chart shows, Yahoo’s U.S. digital display ad market revenue growth is only expected to be 2% this year.
Must-know: Why LinkedIn stock could still be overvalued
The point you need to note here is that LinkedIn expects its sales to range between $2.06 billion and $2.08 billion for full-year 2014.
Why did Facebook’s stock decline 4% on July 8, 2014?
We didn’t expect a 4% fall in Facebook’s stock—especially since the company has been doing well in the online advertising market.
Why Facebook expects its ad revenue growth to slow in Q2
Facebook is well ahead of its direct competitors Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG), and LinkedIn (LNKD) in terms of advertising growth rates, and the company only lags behind Twitter (TWTR).

Why the Twitter stock dropped 18%: The company’s lockup terms
The expiration of Twitter’s lockup period caused shares to drop sharply on the day.

Why did Twitter’s stock just plunge to $37.66 per share?
Despite posting earnings above guidance and Wall Street consensus, the stock dropped sharply lower, at $37.66 per share compared to the prior day’s close of $42.62 per share.
How will Facebook benefit from its Oculus acquisition?
According to a press release from Facebook, the company plans to expand the Oculus Rift headset’s applications beyond gaming to broader fields.

Why did Twitter’s earnings leave some investors underwhelmed?
There were a few points that may have struck investors as disappointing about Twitter’s 4Q13 earnings report. Firstly, Twitter reported average monthly active users of 241 million as of year end 2013.
Why did Facebook’s shares fall after its initial public offering?
Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) on May 18, 2012. This was seen as one of the biggest IPOs in technology and Internet history.

Must-know: Twitter stock has been hot, but is it a good deal?
Twitter stock as appreciated rapidly since its recent IPO, but is it worth the price? Find out why we think Twitter is a bad deal.