LinkedIn revenues hit US$188.5m – acquires SlideShare

4 May 2012

LinkedIn sailed past Wall Street analyst estimates and drove home a strong quarter with Q1 revenues up 101pc to US$188.5m. It also emerged that the business social network plans to acquire SlideShare for US$119m.

Presentation software maker SlideShare is one of the most heavily trafficked sites for professional content. Users have uploaded more than 9m presentations, and according to comScore, in March, SlideShare had nearly 29m unique visitors.

Nearly 7.4m presentations are hosted by SlideShare and are embedded across more than 1.4m unique domains.

LinkedIn will buy SlideShare for US$119m – 45pc in cash and the remaining 55pc in stock.

“Presentations are one of the main ways in which professionals capture and share their experiences and knowledge, which in turn helps shape their professional identity,” said LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner.

“These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain the insights they need to become more productive and successful in their careers, aligning perfectly with LinkedIn’s mission and helping us deliver even more value for our members. We’re very excited to welcome the SlideShare team to LinkedIn.”

LinkedIn first-quarter results

For the first quarter, LinkedIn saw revenue rise to US$188.5m – up 101pc – compared with US$93.9m last year.

This resulted in a profit of US$5m, up from US$2.1m last year.

Revenues from Hiring Solutions totalled US$102.6m, up 121pc compared to last year. Marketing Solutions revenues totalled US$4.8m, up 73pc on last year. Revenues from Premium Subscriptions totalled US$37.9m, up 91pc on last year.

LinkedIn revealed its field sales channel represented 54pc (US$101.5m) of its total revenue, with the remaining 46pc (US$87m) coming from the direct sales channel.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com