LinkedIn thinks it's worth $4bn on eve of IPO

Social-networking-for-suits website LinkedIn has increased the target price for shares it will sell tomorrow in its Initial Public Offering.

The site is selling 4,827,804 shares, and its investors are offering another 3,012,196, for between $42 and $45 each, up almost a quarter on previous estimates.

The company previously said it would sell shares for between $32 and $35 each.

The sale is of Class A stock – Class B shares are identical expect they get 10 votes per share not one – Class B shares represent 99.1 per cent of voting stock, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Co-founder and chairman Reid Hoffman, thanks to his Class B holdings, keeps 21.7 per cent of the votes.

Assuming the sale goes to plan, LinkedIn will be worth about $4bn – although not all the company's shares are on offer. Trading starts on Thursday.

The valuation, along with last week's sale of Skype for $8.5bn, has led some to see the start of another tech-led stockmarket bubble.

The difference is that the crazy valuations for Skype, Facebook, Groupon and Twitter, so far at least, are in private not public markets.

LinkedIn claims 100 million members in 200 countries. It makes some money from subscribers who pay for extra services, but really wants to grab a slice of the online recruitment market.

You can read LinkedIn's full prospectus here. ®