LinkedIn set to go public

The professional social networking site LinkedIn filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.

While the company has not decided on the price of the new LinkedIn shares, nor how many will be offered, it’s thought that at least $175m of shares will be offered which will be made up of a portion of shares sold by LinkedIn directly and the sale of shares of existing stockholders.

The move raises the spectre of a stampede towards IPOs for the world’s social networking giants with Facebook valued at around $50 billion and having also declared an intention to file public accounts in 2012 which also suggests an IPO.

LinkedIn has quickly become an important fixture in business with the membership doubling in size over the last year to around 90 million members.