linkedin

LinkedIn eyes future as professional publishing hub

LinkedIn spent much of 2012 transforming itself into a place where workers could stay and play a while -- a strategy that paid off handsomely. But the year ahead will be all about making the site the preferred destination for professional content, a transition that could make Wall Street's darling even more bewitching.

The professional network today reported earnings that blew the Street's socks off, so to speak. LinkedIn's stock is trading up close to 10 percent on the after-hours market because the company floored everyone with fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 35 cents, revenue of $… Read more

LinkedIn stock soars after Q4 blowout

Mark it down as a blowout. LinkedIn earned 35 cents per share on sales of $303.6 million in the fourth quarter ended December 31, up 81 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Analysts had expected earnings of 19 cents per share on $280 million in revenue.

Net income in the quarter soared 66 percent to $11.5 million, compared with net income of $6.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Even though gross profit margins edged down to 37.9 percent from 41.2 percent a year earlier, Wall Street may like the headway the … Read more

Find out who has viewed your LinkedIn profile

If you are unemployed, unhappy at your current job, or simply curious about other opportunities, then you likely keep close tabs on your LinkedIn account. Users of LinkedIn's basic, free service get some information about who has viewed their account, like so:

The above box shows up on the right side of your profile page. Click on the link and you'll see the last five people who have viewed your profile, like so:

LinkedIn is a bit cagey, however, in letting users of its free service know exactly who is checking out their profile. For starters, you are … Read more

8 overused buzzwords to avoid on your LinkedIn profile

Who knew the world was so creative? That buzzword, "creative," is once again the world's most overused self-description on LinkedIn, as measured by descriptions in member profiles. Unless LinkedIn users are disproportionately creative, that wouldn't be the word most of us would use to describe most professionals we know (of course, all my colleagues are exceptionally creative and wonderful).

LinkedIn has released its analysis of the most commonly used adjectives (English and translated equivalents) in the "summary" section of profiles of its 187 million members (last year, the membership number was 135 million).

"… Read more

LinkedIn smashes Q3 earnings estimates

LinkedIn, the professional networking site that now has 187 million members, today posted third-quarter earnings that easily beat Wall Street estimates and raised its revenue guidance for the full year.

The company, which had strong growth across the board, saw revenue rise 81 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $252 million. Analysts had expected revenue of $244 million. Net income also was up, with LinkedIn posting earnings per share of 22 cents, twice what Wall Street had predicted.

Membership rose 6.9 percent to 187 million from 175 million at the end of the second quarter.

Shares of LinkedIn, which … Read more

Be up-to-date

TweetDeck for Mac now ships with a brand-new, well-designed user interface and a Twitter-for-Mac-like look, and it has multiple additional features that power users will love. By switching to HTML5, the developers have eliminated the need to continuously update Adobe Air, and now users can enjoy a neat app for reading, tweeting, and searching for specific topics of interest.

We liked how simple to use TweetDeck is. As soon as you set up your Twitter (or Facebook) account, you are off. While Twitter for Mac does a very good job for everyday use, it can't compete with this app'… Read more

Make yourself less vulnerable online (video)

Zappos, LinkedIn, eHarmony, Yahoo, LastFm, the Environmental Protection Agency, Stanford, and Columbia University -- all suffered online data breaches recently, says the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

In fact, this year alone, there have been 276 data breaches, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Statistics indicate that private sector businesses and the health-care industry were most vulnerable, falling victim to, respectively, 37 percent and 34 percent of the breaches. Educational institutions and the government/military sector had breach rates of 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively. The rate for financial companies came in at just more than 3 percent, according to … Read more

Facebook drops off the greatest places to work list

Marquee tech companies have always had a good rap of being great places to work: beautiful campuses, casual clothing, free food, and lunchtime workouts. But maybe that's not really the case?

A new list by company review site Glassdoor compiled the 25 best places to work for those trying to achieve an even work-life balance for 2012. And the results are surprising.

Of all well-known tech companies out there, LinkedIn, Orbitz, and CareerBuilder were the only ones to make the list. And for the first time, Facebook entirely dropped off the list. However, of the 25 companies, 12 were … Read more

LinkedIn shows Facebook how it's done, earnings-wise

Updated: 2:30 p.m. PT

It's the flip side of the Facebook story: A (relatively) newly-public Internet company with a story that Wall Street actually likes.

So it was that shares of LinkedIn rose about seven percent in after-hours trading after the company earned $2.8 million on $228.2 million in revenue during the second quarter. Revenue was up 89 percent over the same period a year ago.

Not accounting for special charges, the professional networking site earned 16 cents a share, in line with the consensus Wall Street estimate gathered by FactSet Research. Analysts had expected $… Read more