LinkedIn goes ballistic following IPO

Social-networking-for-suits site LinkedIn saw its shares go ballistic to double in price yesterday after the company's IPO.

The offering set a $45 per share price but in early trading the stock was changing hands for more than $120.

The price settled at $94.25 on the New York Stock Exchange making the whole company worth just less than $9bn.

Some have drawn parallels with the bubble stocks on the late 1990s, but LinkedIn is not a new arrival.

Back in the day, all a company needed was a bit of dot-com glitter to make themselves attractive to the stock markets.

This time the catnip for stockbrokers is any hint of networking. The price jump shows investors' hunger for a slice of any social networking company. It also reflects the lack of tech IPOs, or any other kind, in recent months.

The 100 per cent price rise also shows the markets' belief that networking sites – and what they really want a slice of is Facebook – are some kind of magic money tree.

Anyone remember Geocities? It managed a 119 per cent price rise on its first day of trading back in 1998.

Or what about QXL? The British eBay also managed a bit of a bounce on its first day of trading, despite criticism of its high valuation, which turned out to be warranted. ®