The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider are all closely watching LinkedIn’s initial public offering today.
LinkedIn’s IPO, which priced last night at $45 a share, has more than doubled in early trading, to prices north of $90 a share. Which means LinkedIn’s valuation shot to roughly $8.5 billion in a matter of hours. That’s a lot of money for a company that made $15 million in earnings last year.
According to Henry Blodget of Business Insider, it also means LinkedIn’s underwriters, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, et al, just screwed the company and its shareholders to the tune of an astounding $175 million by wildly underpricing the deal and selling LinkedIn’s stock to institutional clients way too cheaply.