Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which we will not put - Winston Churchill
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Linkedin slashes 10 per cent of not-working force
THE WORKING PERSON’S social not-working site Linkedin will be slashing 10 per cent of its staff, as it restructures itself and braces for the coming financial storm.
The social not-working-but-poncing-around-appearing-to-be-professional site is laying off about 36 souls from its 370 not-working workforce, despite having raised plenty of cash in its last round of fundraising.
Goldman Sachs, SAP, McGraw-Hill, and longtime investor Bessemer Venture Partners all put their hands in their pockets to cough up $22.7 million for the firm, which had already managed to secure itself $53 million in a previous round of funding, giving it a whopping $1 billion valuation.
Raising over $100 million in total funds should have helped Linkedin ride out the economic storm and even scavenge for some cheap strategic assets along the way, but some of its VC investors, like Sequoia, were rumoured to be pushing for cost cuts as the economy continues to look increasingly uncertain.
Linkedin may be small compared to more teen-based social not-working sites like Facebook and Myspace, but its 30 million members are definitely better off, with surveys indicating the average user makes $110,000 a year.
With all these rich people lurking around not-working, the site can charge a lot more for ads, reportedly $75 per thousand impressions. So revenue stream shouldn’t be a major concern at the moment.
Also, last week the site launched its very serious business application platform, the grown-up answer to throwing pies, poking and sending virtual cocktails on Facebook and Myspace.
Linkedin, of course, is trying to soften the blow by saying some of the employees will just be reassigned to mysterious new roles. In our opinion, Linkedin should suck it up and tell it like it is.
After all, it’s not personal, its business. µ
L'Inq
CNET
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Given that Linkedin has figured out how to run its application/web site on a "pay per use" grid (Joyent's accelerator service) they only need a handful of web developers and admins, and given the fact that their site/application's content is self-generating (you and I inputting our details) I dont see why they need more than a couple dozen staff doing non-sale/non-revenue generating activity.
Big valuation, significant risk-free revenues (I presume) and a list of staff short enough that even I could remember everyones name? Sounds like a great place to work!