Until this year, early workers at fast-growing social media startups have had to rely on private stock markets if they wanted to cash in. But that's likely to change, and soon.
While Facebook was raising a $500 million private investment round that will allow it to delay an initial public offering until 2012, LinkedIn was reportedly planning to file for its own IPO in the first quarter of this year.
LinkedIn hasn't seen the same growth as Facebook and Twitter, but its 85 million professional users are viewed as a valuable audience to corporate advertisers.
The company also says it has other revenue streams. While some of the company's financial metrics have been reported, an IPO filing will provide more detail, and the offering itself, when it debuts, will give tech workers an idea of the value that investors place on social media companies. (WSJ)
Symplified Hiring Engineers (FINS)
Symplified, a Boulder, Colo., maker of identity and security services for cloud computing environments, plans to double in size this year after a funding round.
Teradata Hiring Tech Workers (Dayton Business Journal)
Teradata, which provides data warehousing systems and other IT services to business clients, plans to hire between 45 and 50 workers at its offices near Dayton, Ohio.
25 New York Startups (Business Insider)
New York tech workers who want to try the startup game without leaving the Big Apple should check out this list of 25 New York startups.
Small Companies Hiring (Money)
Companies with less than 50 employees added 117,000 workers in December, their strongest hiring surge in almost five years, according to a report from the payroll processing firm ADP.
Cloud Startups Stay Hot (CRN)
Symplified isn't the only young maker of cloud computing software to raise funding these days, and several cloud starups could be ripe for acquisitions this year.
Verizon Deal to Boost iPhone (WSJ)
A widely reported iPhone deal with Verizon's wireless unit is a boost to Apple as it seeks to win the hearts of mobile app developers weighing which platform to write apps for.
Using LinkedIn Polls (CIO)
LinkedIn has a new feature that lets users create or vote on poll questions. Here's how to make them work for you.
MySpace Layoffs Soon (AllThingsD)
A long-reported layoff at the struggling social networking site will come this week, AllThingsD says, with many of the job cuts coming at MySpace's overseas operations.
Mac App Store's Huge First Day (GigaOM)
The impact of Apple's new Mac App store on mobile developers is going to be huge, judging from its debut week.
Write to John Shinal
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