The social networking site for professionals is reportedly planning to go public in 2011, possibly leading the IPO charge before Facebook, and has also chosen its final underwriters.
According to an article on Reuters today, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JPMorgan are among the front runners, having made their pitches to LinkedIn in November 2010. Sources told Reuters that LinkedIn plans to register an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2011.
There’s speculation that LinkedIn it is vying to edge by going forward before Facebook, which is not expected to file for a public offering until 2012.
Linkedin has had its European HQ in Dublin since June 2010.
The Mountain View, California-based site has amassed over 85 million members spanning more than 200 countries since launching in 2003. The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. LinkedIn’s CEO is Jeff Weiner, a former Yahoo! executive. The company was founded by the oft-termed ‘super angel’ investor Reid Hoffman and founding team members from Paypal and Socialnet.com in 2002.
