LinkedIn revenue beats expectations

Social networking site for professionals LinkedIn posted a better-than-expected revenue in the second quarter of the year. It rose 33 per cent to $711.7 million (£456 million), beating the company’s forecast for revenue of $670 million on strong growth in its business serving recruiters.

Excluding stock-based compensation and other items, earnings rose to $71 million, or 55 cents a share, from $63 million, or 51 cents a share.

New acquisition

The strong revenue comes after the company announced in April it would pay $1.5 billion for Lynda.com, a leader in the fast-growing market for career training videos – it's biggest acquisition to date.

Lynda.com offers courses in a number of languages aimed at improving business, technology and creative skills. It has a large library of premium video content on various professional topics such as business skills across multiple languages.

"With the integration of Lynda.com and LinkedIn, users will realise their potential through the development of new skills, learning what skills are needed for the available jobs in their desired city," said Ryan Roslansky, LinkedIn's head of content.

The deal was designed to boost the business content Linkedin offers to its users, while supporting its hiring business. “We believe this could be one of LinkedIn’s most transformational initiatives as it has the potential to improve the member experience across the platform,” Chief Executive Jeff Weiner said in a statement.

The company said it has also been investing to improve its mobile presence and is developing new products for China.

LinkedIn shares down

LinkedIn shares seesawed in after-hours trading in New York yesterday (July 30th), soaring 10 per cent before quickly dropping 4.7 per cent to $216.49 as investors realised that it beat growth expectations because of the acquisition of Lynda.com, and not because of a recovery in its core business, according to the Wall Street Journal. Second-quarter revenue included a contribution of $18 million from Lynda.com.

The company reported about 380 million members at the end of the quarter, a 30 million increase from the previous quarter.