LinkedIn, a US-based social network for business people backed by businesses, has reportedly hired investment banks Morgan Stanley, Bank of American and JP Morgan for its flotation, but not publicly one of its investors.
Newswire Reuters said a prospectus for LinkedIn’s initial public offering was expected to be completed by end-March with the three banks as book-runners selling its shares to the public.
LinikedIn has raised more than $100m from investment bank Goldman Sachs, publisher McGraw-Hill, SAP Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Germany-based software company SAP, and venture capital Bain Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and European Founders Fund.
Last year, Reid Hoffman, serial angel investor and co-founder of LinkedIn, warned corporate venturing units to avoid over-selling the amount of support they can give portfolio companies.
Although he said corporations could be "critical" in helping an entrepreneur build a diversified syndicate of investors, Hoffman warned corporate venturing units not to oversell the amount of support the parent companies could bring in an interview with Global Corporate Venturing.
A month earlier, in October, LinkedIn investors exercised $21.7m in warrants, according to its regulatory filing.