LinkedIn Overview

It sounds like a good partnership on paper but I think the potential benefits are overblown. I'm not convinced that the customized headlines will help drive that much more traffic to NYT.

When I think about NYT and their digital properties, LinkedIn certainly isn't at the top of my list for potential partners. That said, I adore LI, but am completely underwhelmed by the news feature. I've tried using it with my team and have never found it useful. If it were a configurable block, I believe many would have already deleted that section.

In addition to content, this feature needs some decent relevancy ranking behind it to turn it into a benefit.

Absolutely! They have a strong brand and is growing rapidly. They also generate revenues from advertising, subscriptions, and job postings. I would participate in their IPO if I could.

It's hard to say without knowing their profit numbers. It seems reasonable based on the 10X annual revenue number (although on the high end). It would be really high if they're not profitable yet.

If Facebook is a $15Bn company, then LinkedIn is worth at least $1Bn.

As others have stated, you need to know the EBITDA figures to justify the valuation. Given that LinkedIn has achieved significant traction, and has a brand with significant reputation for what it's best at, at the outset, the valuation sounds reasonable. 10 to 15 times EBITDA is not unreasonable. We will be discussing startup valuations at the next Northern StartUp 2.0 event on 15th July in Manchester. http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk/event/northern-startup-business-8

I've seen job postings on LinkedIn that said profiles with recs were preferred. Not sure how useful they really are but I know some people think it's important for a candidate to at least have people willing to step up and publicly praise them.

I follow up with public recs like any other references I receive - with an email asking for a phone convo to ask further questions. I don't take it all at face value especially since a lot of users just swap (positive) recs.

I've never seen a negative recommendation. Figured it was because you can approve which ones to accept and show up. I find it more useful for contractors when a lot of their past clients are willing to rate their work positively and steadily over a period of time.

Really not something to make hiring decisions on. It's more of a nice to have and to see what kind of people they worked with.

I do look at it when hiring, but like everyone mentioned, it's one-sided feedback so I definitely try to get a full picture feedback by contacting folks directly.

It's a cool feature, but I don't think it's very trustworthy. People won't post honest opinions when they know their friends/co-workers will see it,

well, if I don't think the person who is asking for recommendations deserves it, then I will just ignore the request and won't provide any recommendations at all. Vice versa, if I think the person deserves it, I will definitely make the time to provide feedback (even someone may not ask for it).