Are you aware of LinkedIn Today?
It seems somehow that we may be heading back into the old school Internet days of Web Portals, Push Technology and Website Personalization. In the intervening years Social Media has provided significant hooks adding a new sort of “persistence” and convergence to the mix that makes this technology twist both sticky and interesting. LinkedIn Today is just one shining example, but look for others hoping to leverage their influence and extend their brand into new areas.
I don’t know how Start Page proponents only now beginning to make a dent in the marketplace like MyWay for example missed this or just how they will react or respond, however they should at least be aware that a new game is on and get busy or they will get pushed to the margins.
Wall Street seems to just love LinkedIn, in the eight year of business and is busy hiring amidst a strong move to go IPO with share prices recently at $45 have begun to surge above $100 mark more that doubling the market value of the company.
5/24/11 Update:
If you are an early investor in Linked In or an employee with ample stock options you might have become a millionaire in the blink of an eye. The Mountain View, Calif company shot up 109 percent in its first-day gain.
As Linked In went public the fortunes of the company zoomed past twice the value estimated. The NYSE had a feeling of the good old days of the late 1990s and the dot com boom and tech bubble. Financial news networks foamed at the mouth as by the closing bell at the end of business, LinkedIn attained a market value of over $9 billion. The stock, issued at $45, went as high as $122.70 just before noon and closed at $94.25 on trading volume of 30 million shares.
We might soon see Twitter, Groupon and Facebook going to the well and cashing in.
I had been hoping that San Francisco’s Salesforce.com and Moutain View’s LinkedIn could have come together that would have made great strategic sense to me but now that the LinkedIn’s value has gone through the roof that may not be practical or possible.
