LinkedIn debuts on NYSE - and sparks investor fight for $45 shares

LINKEDIN took the New York Stock Exchange by storm on its market debut yesterday as investors fought to get a slice of the first social networking firm to go public.

Its stock nearly doubled in value in early trading after being priced at $45 a share on Wednesday night - valuing the business at $4.3 billion (2.7bn) - the highest valuation for an internet company since Google's flotation in 2004. Traders in New York credited the popularity to the relatively low number of shares on offer - 7.8 million.

Only the biggest US mutual funds, pension funds and other major institutional investors could participate in the initial public offering (IPO), heightening the exclusivity of the shares.

Alison Hyde, technology fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management in the UK, said the LinkedIn flotation was being viewed as a trial run for the "big one" - the rumoured IPO of Facebook.

"The runaway success of LinkedIn's market debut is testament not so much to the company itself, but rather the sheer levels of investor excitement surrounding the burgeoning social media sector," she said. "We may be witnessing the opening of the floodgates, the beginning of a bumper season of social media IPOs; the others can only continue to raise money via the secondary markets for so long."

Renaissance Capital, an IPO research and investment firm, said that the 84 per cent jump in LinkedIn shares at opening yesterday was the biggest early surge for a US IPO since the debut of OpenTable, a restaurant reservations website, in 2009.

LinkedIn, which is described as a social network for professionals, raised $353 million through the flotation. It was set up just eight years ago by Reid Hoffman and boasts more than 100 million members.

All eyes are now on Facebook, which analysts believe could be valued at $50bn if it goes ahead with a rumoured flotation next year.

LinkedIn's debut has sparked speculation over a second dot com boom.

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