10-Q 1 a20140331-10qdocument.htm FORM 10-Q 2014.03.31 - 10Q Document
 
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
 
 
FORM 10-Q
 
 
 
(Mark One)
x
QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2014
or
¨
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from          to         
Commission File Number: 001-35168
 
 
 
LinkedIn Corporation
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
 
 
 
Delaware
47-0912023
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
2029 Stierlin Court
Mountain View, CA 94043
(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)
(650) 687-3600
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
 
 
 
 
Indicate by checkmark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15 (d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  x    No  ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
 
Large accelerated filer
x
Accelerated filer
¨
Non-accelerated filer
¨  (Do not check if a smaller reporting company)
Smaller reporting company
¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ¨    No  x
As of April 24, 2014, there were 105,286,911 shares of the Registrant’s Class A common stock outstanding and 16,472,405 shares of the Registrant’s Class B common stock outstanding.
 




LINKEDIN CORPORATION
FORM 10-Q
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
  
 
Page No.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2


Part I. Financial Information
Item 1. Financial Statements
LINKEDIN CORPORATION
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(In thousands)
(Unaudited)
 
 
March 31,
2014
 
December 31,
2013
ASSETS
 
 
 
CURRENT ASSETS:
 
 
 
Cash and cash equivalents
$
508,850

 
$
803,089

Marketable securities
1,797,373

 
1,526,212

Accounts receivable (net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $6,581 and $6,138 at March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively)
328,661

 
302,168

Deferred commissions
46,575

 
47,496

Prepaid expenses
47,513

 
32,114

Other current assets
50,933

 
44,391

Total current assets
2,779,905

 
2,755,470

Property and equipment, net
406,543

 
361,741

Goodwill
228,893

 
150,871

Intangible assets, net
101,597

 
43,046

Other assets
44,931

 
41,665

TOTAL ASSETS
$
3,561,869

 
$
3,352,793

LIABILITIES, REDEEMABLE NONCONTROLLING INTEREST AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
 
 
 
CURRENT LIABILITIES:
 
 
 
Accounts payable
$
79,711

 
$
66,744

Accrued liabilities
142,141

 
183,004

Deferred revenue
479,576

 
392,243

Total current liabilities
701,428

 
641,991

DEFERRED TAX LIABILITIES
23,900

 
14,879

OTHER LONG TERM LIABILITIES
70,226

 
61,529

Total liabilities
795,554

 
718,399

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES (Note 10)

 

REDEEMABLE NONCONTROLLING INTEREST
5,126

 
5,000

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (Note 11):
 
 
 
Class A and Class B common stock
12

 
12

Additional paid-in capital
2,718,321

 
2,573,449

Accumulated other comprehensive income
682

 
314

Accumulated earnings
42,174

 
55,619

Total stockholders’ equity
2,761,189

 
2,629,394

TOTAL LIABILITIES, REDEEMABLE NONCONTROLLING INTEREST AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
$
3,561,869

 
$
3,352,793

See Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

3


LINKEDIN CORPORATION
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Net revenue
$
473,193

 
$
324,705

Costs and expenses:
 
 
 
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below)
62,455

 
42,384

Sales and marketing
166,522

 
109,417

Product development
120,622

 
80,672

General and administrative
74,618

 
42,784

Depreciation and amortization
49,740

 
25,806

Total costs and expenses
473,957

 
301,063

Income (loss) from operations
(764
)
 
23,642

Other income (expense), net
1,026

 
(308
)
Income before income taxes
262

 
23,334

Provision for income taxes
13,581

 
718

Net income (loss)
(13,319
)
 
22,616

Accretion of redeemable noncontrolling interest
(126
)
 

Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders
$
(13,445
)
 
$
22,616

 
 
 
 
Net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:
 
 
 
Basic
$
(0.11
)
 
$
0.21

Diluted
$
(0.11
)
 
$
0.20

Weighted-average shares used to compute net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:
 
 
 
Basic
120,967

 
109,445

Diluted
120,967

 
115,398

See Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

4


LINKEDIN CORPORATION
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS)
(In thousands)
(Unaudited)
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Net income (loss)
$
(13,319
)
 
$
22,616

Other comprehensive income:
 
 
 
Change in unrealized gains on investments, net of tax
358

 
19

Less: reclassification adjustment for net investment (gains) losses included in net income (loss), net of tax
10

 
(18
)
Total other comprehensive income
368

 
1

Comprehensive income (loss)
(12,951
)
 
22,617

       Accretion of redeemable noncontrolling interest
(126
)
 

          Comprehensive income (loss) attributable to common stockholders
$
(13,077
)
 
$
22,617

See Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

5


LINKEDIN CORPORATION
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(In thousands)
(Unaudited) 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
OPERATING ACTIVITIES:
 
 
 
Net income (loss)
$
(13,319
)
 
$
22,616

Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by operating activities:
 
 
 
Depreciation and amortization
49,740

 
25,806

Provision for doubtful accounts and sales returns
1,207

 
1,314

Stock-based compensation
67,769

 
33,939

Excess income tax benefit from stock-based compensation
(15,982
)
 
(12,556
)
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
 
 
 
Accounts receivable
(26,764
)
 
(8,849
)
Deferred commissions
1,116

 
(642
)
Prepaid expenses and other assets
(11,742
)
 
(9,398
)
Accounts payable and other liabilities
(18,428
)
 
(3,498
)
Income taxes, net
7,928

 
(4,248
)
Deferred revenue
87,333

 
59,345

Net cash provided by operating activities
128,858

 
103,829

INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
 
 
 
Purchases of property and equipment
(88,871
)
 
(44,283
)
Purchases of investments
(737,739
)
 
(158,210
)
Sales of investments
72,239

 
59,031

Maturities of investments
393,044

 
11,230

Payments for intangible assets and acquisitions, net of cash acquired
(85,061
)
 
(226
)
Changes in deposits and restricted cash
(1,404
)
 
(55
)
Net cash used in investing activities
(447,792
)
 
(132,513
)
FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
 
 
 
Proceeds from issuance of common stock from employee stock options
8,147

 
12,057

Excess income tax benefit from stock-based compensation
15,982

 
12,556

Other financing activities
(7
)
 
16

Net cash provided by financing activities
24,122

 
24,629

EFFECT OF EXCHANGE RATE CHANGES ON CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS
573

 
(1,414
)
CHANGE IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS
(294,239
)
 
(5,469
)
CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS—Beginning of period
803,089

 
270,408

CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS—End of period
$
508,850

 
$
264,939

SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURES OF NONCASH INVESTING AND FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
 
 
 
Purchases of property and equipment recorded in accounts payable and accrued liabilities
$
21,242

 
$
28,071

Issuance of Class A common stock and stock options for business combinations
$
50,168

 
$

See Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

6


LINKEDIN CORPORATION
NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(Unaudited)
 
1.
Description of Business and Basis of Presentation
LinkedIn Corporation and its subsidiaries, (the “Company”), a Delaware corporation, was incorporated on March 6, 2003. The Company operates an online professional network on the Internet through which the Company’s members are able to create, manage and share their professional identities online, build and engage with their professional networks, access shared knowledge and insights, and find business opportunities, enabling them to be more productive and successful. The Company is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet and believes it is the most extensive, accurate and accessible network focused on professionals.
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) and applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding interim financial reporting. Certain information and note disclosures normally included in the financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations. Therefore, these condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013, filed on February 13, 2014.
The condensed consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2013, included herein was derived from the audited financial statements as of that date, but does not include all disclosures including notes required by GAAP on an annual reporting basis.
In the opinion of management, the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all normal recurring adjustments necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations, comprehensive income (loss) and cash flows for the interim periods, but are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations to be anticipated for the full year 2014 or any future period.
 
Principles of Consolidation
The condensed consolidated financial statements include the Company, its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and variable interest entities in which LinkedIn is the primary beneficiary in accordance with the consolidation accounting guidance. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.
Redeemable noncontrolling interest is considered to be temporary equity and is therefore reported outside of permanent equity equal to its redemption value.
 
Use of Estimates
The preparation of the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the condensed consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of income and expenses during the reporting period. These estimates are based on information available as of the date of the condensed consolidated financial statements; therefore, actual results could differ from management’s estimates.
 

2.
Fair Value Measurements
The Company measures its cash equivalents, marketable securities and foreign currency derivative contracts at fair value based on an expected exit price as defined by the authoritative guidance on fair value measurements, which represents the amount that would be received on the sale of an asset or paid to transfer a liability, as the case may be, in an orderly transaction between market participants. As such, fair value may be based on assumptions that market participants would use in pricing an asset or liability. The authoritative guidance on fair value measurements establishes a consistent framework for measuring fair value on either a recurring or nonrecurring basis, whereby, inputs used in valuation techniques are assigned a hierarchical level. The following are the hierarchical levels of inputs to measure fair value:
Level 1: Observable inputs that reflect quoted prices (unadjusted) for identical assets or liabilities in active markets.

7


Level 2: Inputs reflect: quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in markets that are not active; quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets; inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the assets or liabilities; or inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data by correlation or other means.
Level 3: Unobservable inputs reflecting the Company’s assumptions incorporated in valuation techniques used to determine fair value. These assumptions are required to be consistent with market participant assumptions that are reasonably available.
The Company’s assets and liabilities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis, by level, within the fair value hierarchy as of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, are summarized as follows (in thousands):
 
 
March 31, 2014
 
December 31, 2013
 
Level 1
 
Level 2
 
Level 3
 
Total
 
Level 1
 
Level 2
 
Level 3
 
Total
Assets:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cash equivalents:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Money market funds
$
188,796

 
$

 
$

 
$
188,796

 
$
242,712

 
$

 
$

 
$
242,712

Commercial paper

 
33,547

 

 
33,547

 

 
15,698

 

 
15,698

U.S. treasury securities
60,373

 

 

 
60,373

 
318,495

 

 

 
318,495

U.S. agency securities

 

 

 

 

 
50,000

 

 
50,000

Repurchase agreements

 
16,500

 

 
16,500

 

 
1,400

 

 
1,400

Marketable securities:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Commercial paper

 
51,004

 

 
51,004

 

 
85,947

 

 
85,947

Certificates of deposit

 
18,032

 

 
18,032

 

 
20,025

 

 
20,025

U.S. treasury securities
624,451

 

 

 
624,451

 
149,908

 

 

 
149,908

U.S. agency securities

 
702,566

 

 
702,566

 

 
928,473

 

 
928,473

Corporate debt securities

 
385,854

 

 
385,854

 

 
326,345

 

 
326,345

Municipal securities

 
15,466

 

 
15,466

 

 
15,514

 

 
15,514

Other current assets:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Foreign currency derivative contracts

 
343

 

 
343

 

 
453

 

 
453

Total assets
$
873,620

 
$
1,223,312

 
$

 
$
2,096,932

 
$
711,115

 
$
1,443,855

 
$

 
$
2,154,970

Liabilities:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Accrued liabilities:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Foreign currency derivative contracts
$

 
$
1,161

 
$

 
$
1,161

 
$

 
$
1,129

 
$

 
$
1,129

Total liabilities
$

 
$
1,161

 
$

 
$
1,161

 
$

 
$
1,129

 
$

 
$
1,129

 
The fair value of the Company's Level 1 financial instruments, which are traded in active markets, are based on quoted market prices for identical instruments. The fair value of the Company's Level 2 fixed income securities are obtained from an independent pricing service, which may use quoted market prices for identical or comparable instruments or model driven valuations using observable market data or inputs corroborated by observable market data. The Company's procedures include controls to ensure that appropriate fair values are recorded, including comparing the fair values obtained from the Company's pricing service against fair values obtained from another independent source. The Company's derivative instruments are valued using pricing models that use observable market inputs and, therefore, are classified as Level 2.

As of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the Company had outstanding foreign currency derivative contracts with a total notional amount of $149.2 million and $94.8 million, respectively.


8


3.
Acquisitions
Bright
On February 28, 2014, LinkedIn completed its acquisition of Bright Media Corporation ("Bright"), a San Francisco, California-based privately held online job board with candidate matching capabilities. LinkedIn's purchase price of $101.8 million for all the outstanding shares of capital stock of Bright consisted of $51.6 million in cash and 241,875 shares of LinkedIn Class A common stock. LinkedIn also issued 11,702 stock options related to assumed Bright equity awards. The fair value of the earned portion of assumed stock options of $0.8 million is included in the purchase price, with the remaining fair value of $1.4 million representing post-acquisition compensation expense that will be recognized over the requisite service period of approximately three years from the date of acquisition. The total consideration in connection with the acquisition is subject to adjustment based on (i) purchase price adjustment provisions and (ii) indemnification obligations of Bright stockholders after the closing of the acquisition.
The acquisition has been accounted for as a business combination under the acquisition method and, accordingly, the total purchase price is allocated to the tangible and intangible assets acquired and the liabilities assumed based on their respective fair values on the acquisition date. The purchase price allocation is pending the finalization of deferred tax calculations and residual goodwill. Bright's results of operations have been included in the condensed consolidated financial statements from the date of acquisition. To retain the services of certain former Bright employees, LinkedIn offered $2.6 million in cash and 55,186 shares of non-vested Class A common stock with a total fair value of $11.3 million that will be earned over three years from the date of acquisition. As the cash and equity awards are subject to post-acquisition employment, the Company is accounting for them as post-acquisition compensation expense.

The following table presents the purchase price allocation initially recorded in the Company's condensed consolidated balance sheets on the acquisition date (in thousands):
 
 
Total
Net tangible assets
 
$
900

Goodwill (1)
 
75,022

Identified developed technology (2)
 
32,200

Net deferred tax liability
 
(6,315
)
Total purchase price (3) 
 
$
101,807

 _______________________
(1)
The goodwill represents the excess value over both tangible and intangible assets acquired. The goodwill in this transaction is primarily attributable to expected operational synergies, the assembled workforce, and the future development initiatives of the assembled workforce. None of the goodwill is expected to be deductible for tax purposes.
(2)
The identified developed technology has an estimated useful life of 3.0 years, which will be amortized on a straight-line basis.
(3)
Subject to adjustment based on (i) purchase price adjustment provisions and (ii) indemnification obligations of the acquired company stockholders.

Supplemental information on an unaudited pro forma basis, as if the Bright acquisition had been consummated on January 1, 2013, is presented as follows (in thousands, except per share amounts):
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Revenue
$
474,316

 
$
326,504

Net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders
(17,263
)
 
19,013

Net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders - diluted
$
(0.14
)
 
$
0.14


These pro forma results are based on estimates and assumptions, which the Company believes are reasonable. They are not necessarily indicative of the Company's consolidated results of operations in future periods or the results that actually would have been realized had it been a combined company during the periods presented. The pro forma results include adjustments primarily related to amortization of developed technology, severance and benefit arrangements in connection with the acquisition, and stock-based compensation expenses for assumed unearned stock options and restricted stock units ("RSUs").


9


Other acquisition

The Company completed one other acquisition for total cash consideration of $4.0 million, which resulted in goodwill of $3.0 million and developed technology of $1.0 million. The developed technology has an estimated useful life of 2.0 years, which will be amortized on a straight-line basis.

4.
Cash and Investments
The following table presents cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments for the periods presented (in thousands): 
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Gross
Unrealized
Gains
 
Gross
Unrealized
Losses
 
Estimated
Fair Market
Value
March 31, 2014:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cash
$
209,634

 
$

 
$

 
$
209,634

Cash equivalents:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Money market funds
188,796

 

 

 
188,796

Commercial paper
33,543

 
4

 

 
33,547

U.S. treasury securities
60,372

 
1

 

 
60,373

Repurchase agreements
16,500

 

 

 
16,500

Marketable securities:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Commercial paper
50,972

 
32

 

 
51,004

Certificates of deposit
18,025

 
7

 

 
18,032

U.S. treasury securities
624,291

 
160

 

 
624,451

U.S. agency securities
702,053

 
563

 
(50
)
 
702,566

Corporate debt securities
385,506

 
438

 
(90
)
 
385,854

Municipal securities
15,449

 
18

 
(1
)
 
15,466

Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities
$
2,305,141

 
$
1,223

 
$
(141
)
 
$
2,306,223

December 31, 2013:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cash
$
174,784

 
$

 
$

 
$
174,784

Cash equivalents:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Money market funds
242,712

 

 

 
242,712

Commercial paper
15,696

 
2

 

 
15,698

U.S. treasury securities
318,500

 

 
(5
)
 
318,495

U.S. agency securities
50,000

 

 

 
50,000

Repurchase agreements
1,400

 

 

 
1,400

Marketable securities:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Commercial paper
85,930

 
18

 
(1
)
 
85,947

Certificates of deposit
20,025

 
2

 
(2
)
 
20,025

U.S. treasury securities
149,845

 
67

 
(4
)
 
149,908

U.S. agency securities
928,371

 
410

 
(308
)
 
928,473

Corporate debt securities
326,027

 
399

 
(81
)
 
326,345

Municipal securities
15,504

 
14

 
(4
)
 
15,514

Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities
$
2,328,794

 
$
912

 
$
(405
)
 
$
2,329,301



10


The following table presents available-for-sale investments by contractual maturity date (in thousands) as of March 31, 2014: 
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Estimated
Fair Market
Value
Due in one year or less
$
1,047,066

 
$
1,047,400

Due after one year through two years
749,230

 
749,973

Total
$
1,796,296

 
$
1,797,373



5.
Property and Equipment
The following table presents the detail of property and equipment, net, for the periods presented (in thousands): 
 
March 31,
2014
 
December 31,
2013
Computer equipment
$
379,455

 
$
347,545

Software
42,099

 
32,103

Capitalized website and internal-use software
91,845

 
80,074

Furniture and fixtures
37,342

 
28,786

Leasehold improvements
137,709

 
116,887

Total
688,450

 
605,395

Less accumulated depreciation
(281,907
)
 
(243,654
)
Property and equipment, net
$
406,543

 
$
361,741

 



6.
Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

Goodwill
Goodwill is generally not deductible for tax purposes. The following table presents the goodwill activity for the periods presented (in thousands):
Goodwill—December 31, 2013
$
150,871

2014 acquisitions
78,022

Goodwill—March 31, 2014
$
228,893


Other Intangible Assets
The following table presents the detail of other intangible assets for the periods presented (dollars in thousands):
 
Gross
Carrying
Amount
 
Accumulated
Amortization
 
Net
Carrying
Amount
 
Weighted-
Average
Remaining
Life
March 31, 2014:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Developed technology
$
70,652

 
$
(19,932
)
 
$
50,720

 
2.5 years
Trade name
7,000

 
(3,453
)
 
3,547

 
1.7 years
Patents
46,556

 
(1,635
)
 
44,921

 
11.0 years
Customer relationships
1,200

 
(440
)
 
760

 
3.2 years
Other intangible assets
6,711

 
(5,062
)
 
1,649

 
1.8 years
Total
$
132,119

 
$
(30,522
)
 
$
101,597

 
6.2 years
December 31, 2013:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Developed technology
$
37,452

 
$
(16,340
)
 
$
21,112

 
2.2 years
Trade name
7,000

 
(2,869
)
 
4,131

 
1.9 years
Patents
16,398

 
(1,261
)
 
15,137

 
11.1 years
Customer relationships
1,200

 
(380
)
 
820

 
3.4 years
Other intangible assets
6,705

 
(4,859
)
 
1,846

 
2.0 years
Total
$
68,755

 
$
(25,709
)
 
$
43,046

 
5.4 years

Amortization expense was $4.8 million and $2.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Estimated amortization expense of purchased intangible assets for future periods as of March 31, 2014 is as follows (in thousands):
Year Ending December 31,
Amortization expense
Remainder of 2014
$
21,594

2015
25,997

2016
18,441

2017
6,131

2018
4,242

Thereafter
24,771

Total
$
101,176

 

12


7.
Accrued Liabilities
The following table presents the detail of accrued liabilities for the periods presented (in thousands):
 
March 31,
2014
 
December 31,
2013
Accrued vacation and employee-related expenses
$
77,671

 
$
64,757

Accrued incentives
19,528

 
60,081

Accrued commissions
12,051

 
32,218

Accrued sales tax and value-added taxes
9,345

 
10,851

Other accrued expenses
23,546

 
15,097

Total
$
142,141

 
$
183,004


8.
Other Income (Expense), Net
The following table presents the detail of other income (expense), net, for the periods presented (in thousands):
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Interest income
$
1,005

 
$
470

Net gain (loss) on foreign exchange and foreign currency derivative contracts
25

 
(933
)
Net realized gain on sales of marketable securities
14

 
3

Other non-operating income (expense), net
(18
)
 
152

Total other income (expense), net
$
1,026

 
$
(308
)

9.
Income (Loss) Per Share
Basic and diluted net income (loss) per common share is presented in conformity with the two-class method required for participating securities.
Immediately prior to the consummation of the Company’s initial public offering ("IPO") of its Class A common stock in May 2011, all outstanding shares of preferred stock and common stock were converted to Class B common stock. As a result, Class A and Class B common stock are the only outstanding equity in the Company. The rights of the holders of Class A and Class B common stock are identical, except with respect to voting and conversion. Each share of Class A common stock is entitled to one vote per share and each share of Class B common stock is entitled to ten votes per share. Shares of Class B common stock may be converted into Class A common stock at any time at the option of the stockholder, and are automatically converted upon sale or transfer to Class A common stock, subject to certain limited exceptions.
Basic net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders is computed using the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders is computed using the weighted-average number of common shares and, if dilutive, potential common shares outstanding during the period. The Company’s potential common shares consist of the incremental common shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options, and to a lesser extent, shares issuable upon the release of RSUs and purchases related to the 2011 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. The dilutive effect of these potential common shares is reflected in diluted earnings per share by application of the treasury stock method. The computation of the diluted net income (loss) per share of Class A common stock assumes the conversion of Class B common stock, while the diluted net income (loss) per share of Class B common stock does not assume the conversion of Class A common stock as Class A common stock is not convertible into Class B common stock.
The undistributed earnings are allocated based on the contractual participation rights of the Class A and Class B common shares as if the earnings for the year have been distributed. As the liquidation and dividend rights are identical, the undistributed earnings are allocated on a proportionate basis. Further, as the conversion of Class B common stock is assumed in the computation of the diluted net income (loss) per share of Class A common stock, the undistributed earnings are equal to net income for that computation.



13


The following table presents the calculation of basic and diluted net income (loss) per share per share attributable to common stockholders (in thousands, except per share data):
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
 
Class A
 
Class B
 
Class A
 
Class B
Basic net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Numerator:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Allocation of undistributed earnings
$
(11,570
)
 
$
(1,875
)
 
$
18,614

 
$
4,002

Denominator:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Weighted-average common shares outstanding
104,100

 
16,867

 
90,077

 
19,368

Basic net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders
$
(0.11
)
 
$
(0.11
)
 
$
0.21

 
$
0.21

Diluted net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Numerator:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Allocation of undistributed earnings for basic computation
$
(11,570
)
 
$
(1,875
)
 
$
18,614

 
$
4,002

Reallocation of undistributed earnings as a result of conversion of Class B to Class A shares
(1,875
)
 

 
4,002

 

Reallocation of undistributed earnings to Class B shares

 

 

 
738

Allocation of undistributed earnings
$
(13,445
)
 
$
(1,875
)
 
$
22,616

 
$
4,740

Denominator:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Number of shares used in basic calculation
104,100

 
16,867

 
90,077

 
19,368

Weighted-average effect of dilutive securities
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Add:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Conversion of Class B to Class A common shares outstanding
16,867

 

 
19,368

 

Employee stock options

 

 
4,995

 
4,818

RSUs and other dilutive securities

 

 
958

 

Number of shares used in diluted calculation
120,967

 
16,867

 
115,398

 
24,186

Diluted net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders
$
(0.11
)
 
$
(0.11
)
 
$
0.20

 
$
0.20


The following weighted-average employee equity awards were excluded from the calculation of diluted net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders because their effect would have been anti-dilutive for the periods presented (in thousands):
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Employee stock options
3,671

 
257

RSUs
1,204

 
451

Total
4,875

 
708

 
10.
Commitments and Contingencies
Aggregate Future Lease Commitments
The Company leases its office facilities and data centers under operating lease agreements, the longest of which is expected to expire in 2026. The Company’s future minimum payments, which exclude operating expenses, under non-cancelable operating leases for office facilities and data centers having initial terms in excess of one year as of March 31, 2014 are as follows (in thousands):
 

14


Year Ending December 31,
Operating  Leases (1)
Remainder of 2014
$
60,622

2015
105,981

2016
106,416

2017
96,263

2018
86,406

Thereafter
542,384

Total minimum lease payments
$
998,072

 __________________
(1)
Subsequent to March 31, 2014, the Company leased additional office space to be developed in San Francisco, California. The Company estimates the aggregate future minimum lease payments of approximately $336.3 million will begin in early 2016. The lease is expected to expire in 2027.
Legal Proceedings
The Company is subject to legal proceedings and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business, including, but not limited to, certain pending patent and privacy matters, including class action lawsuits, as well as inquiries, investigations, audits and other regulatory proceedings. Although occasional adverse decisions or settlements may occur, the Company does not believe that the final disposition of any of these matters will have a material adverse effect on the business. Certain of these matters include speculative claims for substantial or indeterminate amounts of damages, and include claims for injunctive relief. Additionally, the Company's litigation costs are significant. Other regulatory matters could result in fines and penalties being assessed against the Company, and it may become subject to mandatory periodic audits, which would likely increase its regulatory compliance costs. Adverse results of litigation or regulatory matters could also result in the Company being required to change its business practices, which could negatively impact its membership and revenue growth.
The Company records a liability when it believes that it is both probable that a loss has been incurred and the amount can be reasonably estimated. The Company periodically evaluates developments in its legal matters that could affect the amount of liability that it has previously accrued, if any, and makes adjustments as appropriate. Significant judgment is required to determine both likelihood of there being, and the estimated amount of, a loss related to such matters, and the Company’s judgment may be incorrect. The outcome of any proceeding is not determinable in advance. Until the final resolution of any such matters that the Company may be required to accrue for, it may be exposed to loss in excess of the amount accrued, and such amounts could be material.
Indemnifications
In the ordinary course of business, the Company enters into contractual arrangements under which it agrees to provide indemnification of varying scope and terms to business partners and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses arising out of the Company’s breach of such agreements and out of intellectual property infringement claims made by third parties. In these circumstances, payment may be conditional on the other party making a claim pursuant to the procedures specified in the particular contract. Further, the Company’s obligations under these agreements may be limited in terms of time and/or amount, and in some instances, it may have recourse against third parties for certain payments. In addition, the Company has indemnification agreements with certain of its directors and executive officers that require it, among other things, to indemnify them against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors or officers with the Company. The terms of such obligations may vary.
 
11.
Stockholders’ Equity
Common Stock
As of March 31, 2014, the Company had 105,044,670 shares and 16,613,979 shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock outstanding, respectively. As of December 31, 2013, the Company had 103,194,534 and 17,157,215 shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock outstanding, respectively.


15


Stock Option Activity
A summary of stock option activity for the three months ended March 31, 2014 is as follows:
 
 
Stock Option Activity
 
Weighted-Average
Remaining
Contractual Term
(in years)
 
Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
(in thousands)
 
Number of
Shares
 
Weighted-Average
Exercise Price
 
 
 
 
Outstanding—December 31, 2013
5,130,636

 
$
34.54

 
 
 
 
Assumed options from acquisition
11,702

 
12.11

 
 
 
 
Granted
265,761

 
203.70

 
 
 
 
Exercised
(669,189
)
 
12.17

 
 
 
 
Canceled or expired
(40,012
)
 
37.44

 
 
 
 
Outstanding—March 31, 2014
4,698,898

 
$
47.22

 
6.58
 
$
653,112

Options vested and expected to vest as of March 31, 2014
4,517,093

 
$
43.30

 
6.50
 
$
644,798

Options vested and exercisable as of March 31, 2014
2,781,058

 
$
14.56

 
5.64
 
$
473,961

Aggregate intrinsic value represents the difference between the Company's closing stock price of its common stock and the exercise price of outstanding, in-the-money options. The Company’s closing stock price as reported on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) as of March 31, 2014 was $184.94. The total intrinsic value of options exercised was approximately $128.1 million and $182.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
RSU Activity
A summary of RSU activity for the three months ended March 31, 2014 is as follows:
 
 
Number of
Shares
 
Weighted-
Average
Grant Date
Fair Value
Unvested—December 31, 2013
4,048,089

 
$
144.53

Granted
1,075,250

 
202.07

Released
(341,658
)
 
121.83

Canceled or expired
(111,755
)
 
126.67

Unvested—March 31, 2014
4,669,926

 
$
159.86


16


Stock-Based Compensation
Beginning in the first quarter of 2014, the Company transitioned from using the simplified method for calculating the expected term of options as described in the SEC's Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 107, Share-Based Payment, because it now believes there is sufficient historical information to derive a reasonable estimate. The calculation considers a combination of historical and estimated future exercise behavior.
The following table presents the weighted-average assumptions used to estimate the fair value of options granted during the periods presented, excluding assumed acquisition-related stock options:
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Volatility
46%
 
54%
Expected dividend yield
 
Risk-free rate
1.12%
 
1.13%
Expected term (in years)
4.00
 
6.28
The weighted-average grant date fair value of options granted, excluding assumed acquisition-related stock options was $75.15 and $88.16 per share for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The weighted-average grant date fair value of assumed acquisition-related stock options granted was $192.20 per share for the three months ended March 31, 2014. There were no assumed acquisition-related stock options granted for the three months ended March 31, 2013.
The following table presents the amount of stock-based compensation related to stock-based awards to employees and nonemployees on the Company’s condensed consolidated statements of operations during the periods presented (in thousands):
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Cost of revenue
$
5,836

 
$
2,806

Sales and marketing
12,181

 
6,861

Product development
33,126

 
17,638

General and administrative
16,626

 
6,634

Total stock-based compensation
67,769

 
33,939

Tax benefit from stock-based compensation
(18,778
)
 
(9,289
)
Total stock-based compensation, net of tax effect
$
48,991

 
$
24,650


The Company capitalized $2.7 million and $1.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, of stock-based compensation as website development costs.

12.
Income Taxes
The Company is subject to income tax in the United States as well as other tax jurisdictions in which it conducts business. Earnings from non-U.S. activities are subject to local country income tax. The Company does not provide for federal income taxes on the undistributed earnings of its foreign subsidiaries, as such, earnings are to be reinvested indefinitely offshore. The determination of the interim period income tax provision utilizes the effective rate method, which requires the estimation of certain annualized components of the computation of income provision, including the estimate of the annual effective tax rate by legal entity and by jurisdiction.
On January 2, 2013, the President signed into law The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the "2012 Act"). Under prior law, a taxpayer was entitled to a research tax credit for qualifying amounts paid or incurred on or before December 31, 2011. The 2012 Act extends the research credit for two years to December 31, 2013. As a result of the retroactive extension, the Company recognized a tax benefit of $14.0 million in the three months ended March 31, 2013 for qualifying amounts incurred in 2012. However, the federal research credit has not been extended for new research activities incurred after December 31, 2013 and as such, the Company will not have a similar tax benefit in fiscal 2014.

17


The Company recorded income tax expense of $13.6 million and $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The tax provision increased in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year primarily due to the expiration of the research tax credit for activities incurred after December 31, 2013, foreign tax losses which derive no benefit, acquisition costs, and non-deductible stock-based compensation. The Company's foreign losses increased during the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year primarily due to international research and development expenses, which had a higher growth rate than international revenues. International research and development expenses include costs charged by LinkedIn Corporation.

13.
Information About Revenue and Geographic Areas
Revenue by geography is generally based on the shipping address of the customer. The following tables present the Company’s revenue by product line and geographic region for the periods presented (in thousands):
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Net revenue by product:
 
 
 
Talent Solutions
$
275,875

 
$
184,284

Marketing Solutions
101,783

 
74,796

Premium Subscriptions
95,535

 
65,625

Total
$
473,193

 
$
324,705

 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Net revenue by geographic region:
 
 
 
United States
$
284,878

 
$
201,403

Other Americas (1)
31,904

 
24,176

Total Americas
316,782

 
225,579

EMEA(2)
117,871

 
75,157

APAC (3)
38,540

 
23,969

Total
$
473,193

 
$
324,705

 __________________
(1)
Canada, Latin America and South America
(2)
Europe, the Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”)
(3)
Asia-Pacific (“APAC”)
No individual customer accounted for 10% or more of consolidated net revenue or accounts receivable for any of the periods presented.
 

18


14.
Subsequent Events

In April 2014, the Company leased additional office space to be developed in San Francisco, California. The Company estimates the aggregate future minimum lease payments of approximately $336.3 million will begin in early 2016. The lease is expected to expire in 2027.

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
This section and other parts of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements can also be identified by words such as “anticipates,” “expects,” “believes,” “plans,” “predicts,” and similar terms. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and the Company’s actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the subsection entitled “Risk Factors” below, which are incorporated herein by reference.
You should read the following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the condensed consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013, filed on February 13, 2014.

Overview
We are the world’s largest professional network on the Internet and currently have more than 300 million members in over 200 countries and territories. Through our proprietary platform, members are able to create, manage and share their professional identity online, build and engage with their professional network, access shared knowledge and insights, and find business opportunities, enabling them to be more productive and successful. We believe we are the most extensive, accurate and accessible network focused on professionals.
In the three months ended March 31, 2014, we achieved significant growth as compared to the same period in 2013 as our network of registered members and member engagement continues to increase and we continue to benefit from expanded product offerings and international expansion. Our net revenue was $473.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 which represented an increase of 46% compared to the same period in 2013. Our future growth will depend, in part, on our ability to continue to increase our member base and member engagement on both mobile and desktop devices, as well as continuing to expand our product offerings and international expansion, which we believe will result in increased sales of our Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions to new and existing customers. As our net revenue increases, we expect our growth rate related to net revenue will decrease over time. Also, we believe the rate at which we are able to increase our member base and member engagement, as measured by our key metrics, will decelerate over time because of the large scale of our network, and that this may impact portions of our business.
In 2014, our philosophy is to continue to invest for long-term growth and we expect to continue to invest heavily in the following:
Talent. We expect to increase our workforce, which will result in an increase in headcount-related expenses, including stock-based compensation expense. As of March 31, 2014, we had 5,416 employees, which represented an increase of 43% compared to the same period last year.
Technology. We expect to continue to make significant capital expenditures to upgrade our technology and network infrastructure to improve the ability of our website to handle expected increases in usage, to enable the release of new features and solutions, and to scale for future growth.
Product. We expect to continue to invest heavily in our product development efforts, specifically around mobile, to enable our members and customers to derive more value from our platform. Mobile continues to be the fastest growing channel for member engagement, growing nearly three times the rate of our internally measured unique visiting members, which we internally track and define as the monthly average number of members who have visited LinkedIn.com on either mobile or desktop environments at least once during a month. Mobile unique visiting members represent 43% of unique visiting members in the three months ended March 31, 2014.
Monetization. We expect to continue to aggressively expand our field sales organization to market our solutions both in the United States and internationally.
As a result of our investment philosophy, we may not be profitable on a U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) basis in 2014.

19



Key Business Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including the following key metrics, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections and make strategic decisions.
Number of Registered Members. We define the number of registered members in our network as the number of individual users who have created a member profile on LinkedIn.com as of the date of measurement. We believe the number of registered members is a key indicator of the growth of our network and our ability to receive the benefits of the network effects resulting from such growth. Growth in our member base depends, in part, on our ability to successfully develop and market our solutions to professionals who have not yet become members of our network. Member growth will also be contingent on our ability to translate our offerings into additional languages, create more localized products in certain key markets, and more broadly expand our member base internationally.
We believe that a higher number of registered members will result in increased sales of our Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions, as customers will have access to a larger pool of professional talent. However, a higher number of registered members will not immediately increase sales, nor will a higher number of registered members in a given region immediately increase sales in that region.
The following table presents the number of registered members as of the periods presented by geographic region (certain items may not total due to rounding):
 
 
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
(in thousands)
 
 
Members by geographic region:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
United States
99,449

 
34
%
 
78,021

 
36
%
 
27
%
Other Americas (1)
51,016

 
17
%
 
36,299

 
17
%
 
41
%
Total Americas
150,465

 
51
%
 
114,320

 
52
%
 
32
%
EMEA (2)
92,835

 
31
%
 
65,635

 
30
%
 
41
%
APAC (3)
53,166

 
18
%
 
38,314

 
18
%
 
39
%
Total number of registered members (4)
296,466

 
100
%
 
218,269

 
100
%
 
36
%
 ______________________
(1)
Canada, Latin America and South America
(2)
Europe, the Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”)
(3)
Asia-Pacific (“APAC”)
(4)
The number of registered members is higher than the number of actual members due to various factors. For more information, see “Risk Factors—The number of our registered members is higher than the number of actual members and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members. Our business may be adversely impacted if we are unable to attract and retain additional members who actively use our services. In addition, the tracking of certain of our performance metrics is done with internal tools and is not independently verified.

Unique Visitors. We report our unique visitors based on data provided by comScore, a leading provider of digital marketing intelligence. comScore defines unique visitors as users who have visited our desktop website (which excludes mobile engagement) at least once during a month regardless of whether they are a member. We view unique visitors as a key indicator of growth in our brand awareness among users and whether we are providing our members with useful products and features, thereby increasing member engagement. We believe that a higher level of member engagement will result in increased sales of our Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions, as customers will have access to a larger pool of professional talent. Growth in unique visitors will be driven by growth in the number of registered members, improvements to features and products that drive traffic to our website, and international expansion.


20


The following table presents the average monthly number of unique visitors during the periods presented:
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
(in millions)
 
 
Unique visitors (1)
186

 
170

 
9
%
______________________
(1)
Includes the impact of Slideshare Inc. ("Slideshare"), which was acquired on May 17, 2012. Excluding the impact of Slideshare, the average monthly number of unique visitors for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 was 142 million and 132 million, respectively.


Page Views. We report our page views based on data provided by comScore. comScore defines page views as the number of pages on our desktop website (excluding mobile page views) that users view during the measurement period. Similar to unique visitors, we believe page views is a key indicator for gaining insight into whether we are increasing member engagement and whether our members are deriving value from our solutions. We expect growth in page views will be driven, in part, by growth in the number of registered members, improvements in products and features that drive member traffic to our website, and international expansion. However, page views may not capture all of the value that our members and other users derive from our solutions because part of the benefit of certain products and features is that the member or user does not need to visit our website to receive value from our platform. For example, members can respond to InMails they receive from other members without accessing their LinkedIn account or our website.

The following table presents the number of page views during the periods presented:
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
(in millions)
 
 
Page Views (1)
12,157

 
11,622

 
5
%
______________________
(1)
Includes the impact of Slideshare, which was acquired on May 17, 2012. Excluding the impact of Slideshare, the number of page views for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 was 11.5 billion and 11.1 billion, respectively.
Number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions Customers. We define the number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions customers as the number of enterprises and professional organizations that we have under active contracts for this product as of the date of measurement. Our LinkedIn Corporate Solutions include LinkedIn Recruiter, Job Slots, LinkedIn Recruitment Media and LinkedIn Career Pages, which are all part of Talent Solutions, with the exception of LinkedIn Recruitment Media, which is currently part of Marketing Solutions. We believe the number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions customers is an indicator of our market penetration in the online recruiting market and the value that our products bring to both large and small enterprises and professional organizations.

The following table presents the number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions customers as of the periods presented: 
 
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
 
 
 
LinkedIn Corporate Solutions customers
25,844

 
18,138

 
42
%
 
Sales Channel Mix. Depending on the specific product, we sell our Talent Solutions and Marketing Solutions offline through our field sales organization or online on our website. The vast majority of our Premium Subscriptions are sold online on our website. Our field sales organization uses a direct sales force to solicit customers and agencies. This offline channel is characterized by a longer sales cycle where price can be

21


negotiated, higher relative average selling prices, longer contract terms, higher selling expenses and a longer cash collection cycle compared to our online channel.
Our online, or self-service, sales channel allows members to purchase solutions directly on our website. Members can purchase Premium Subscriptions as well as certain lower priced products in our Talent Solutions and Marketing Solutions, such as job postings and self-service advertising. This channel is characterized by lower average selling prices and higher cancellations compared to our offline channel, lower selling costs due to our automated payments platform and a highly liquid collection cycle.

The following table presents our net revenue by field sales and online sales:
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
 
($ in thousands)
Field sales
$
275,262

 
58
%
 
$
183,971

 
57
%
Online sales
197,931

 
42
%
 
140,734

 
43
%
     Net revenue
$
473,193

 
100
%
 
$
324,705

 
100
%
Adjusted EBITDA
To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have disclosed adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure. The table below presents a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.
We have included adjusted EBITDA in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve our annual budget and to develop short and long-term operational plans. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core business. Additionally, adjusted EBITDA is a key financial measure used by the compensation committee of our board of directors in connection with the payment of bonuses to our executive officers. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.
Our use of adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;
adjusted EBITDA does not consider the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation;
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us; and
other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate adjusted EBITDA differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.
Because of these limitations, you should consider adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss) and our other GAAP results. The following table presents a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods indicated (in thousands):
 

22


 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA:
 
 
 
     Net income (loss)
$
(13,319
)
 
$
22,616

     Provision for income taxes
13,581

 
718

     Other (income) expense, net
(1,026
)
 
308

     Depreciation and amortization
49,740

 
25,806

     Stock-based compensation
67,769

 
33,939

     Adjusted EBITDA
$
116,745

 
$
83,387



Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our condensed consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). The preparation of these condensed consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and related disclosures. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our estimates are based on historical experience and various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ from these estimates.
We believe that the assumptions and estimates associated with revenue recognition, stock-based compensation, the valuation of goodwill and intangible assets, website and internal-use software development costs, leases, income taxes and legal contingencies have the greatest potential impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements. Therefore, we consider these to be our critical accounting policies and estimates.
There have been no material changes to the our critical accounting policies and estimates as compared to the critical accounting policies and estimates described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 filed on February 13, 2014.


23


Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our results of operations for the periods presented as a percentage of net revenue for those periods. The period-to-period comparison of financial results is not necessarily indicative of future results.
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
 
(As a percentage of revenue)
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations Data: (1)
 
 
 
Net revenue
100
 %
 
100
 %
Costs and expenses:
 
 
 
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below)
13

 
13

Sales and marketing
35

 
34

Product development
25

 
25

General and administrative
16

 
13

Depreciation and amortization
11

 
8

Total costs and expenses
100

 
93

Income (loss) from operations

 
7

Other income (expense), net

 

Income before income taxes

 
7

Provision for income taxes
3

 

Net income (loss)
(3
)
 
7
 %
Accretion of redeemable noncontrolling interest

 

Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders
(3
)%
 
7
 %
 ______________________
(1) Certain items may not total due to rounding.

Net Revenue
We generate revenue from Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions.
Talent Solutions. Revenue from Talent Solutions is derived primarily from providing access to the LinkedIn Recruiter product and job postings. We provide access to our professional database of both active and passive job candidates with LinkedIn Recruiter, which allows corporate recruiting teams to identify candidates based on industry, job function, geography, experience/education, and other specifications. Revenue from the LinkedIn Recruiter product is recognized ratably over the subscription period, which consists primarily of annual subscriptions that are billed monthly, quarterly, or annually. We also earn revenue from the placement of job postings on our website, which generally run for 30 days. Independent recruiters can pay to post job openings that are accessible through job searches or targeted job matches. Revenue from job postings is recognized as the posting is displayed or the contract period, whichever is shorter.
Marketing Solutions. Revenue from Marketing Solutions is earned from the display of advertisements (both graphic and text link) on our website primarily based on a cost per advertisement model. Revenue from Internet advertising is recognized as the online advertisements are displayed on our website. The typical duration of our advertising contracts is approximately two months.
Premium Subscriptions. Revenue from Premium Subscriptions is derived from selling various subscriptions to customers that allow users to have further access to premium services via our LinkedIn.com website. We offer our members monthly or annual subscriptions. Revenue from Premium Subscriptions is recognized ratably over the contract period, which is generally one to 12 months.
 

24


 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Revenue by product:
 
 
 
 
 
Talent Solutions
$
275,875

 
$
184,284

 
50
%
Marketing Solutions
101,783

 
74,796

 
36
%
Premium Subscriptions
95,535

 
65,625

 
46
%
Total
$
473,193

 
$
324,705

 
46
%
Percentage of revenue by product: (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Talent Solutions
58
%
 
57
%
 
 
Marketing Solutions
22
%
 
23
%
 
 
Premium Subscriptions
20
%
 
20
%
 
 
Total
100
%
 
100
%
 
 
  ______________________
(1) Certain items may not total due to rounding.
Total net revenue increased $148.5 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. Net revenue from our Talent Solutions increased $91.6 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. The increase was driven by increased spending by existing customers as well as generating business with new customers, as evidenced by the 42% increase in the number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions customers as of March 31, 2014 compared to March 31, 2013.
Net revenue from our Marketing Solutions increased $27.0 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year primarily due to the introduction of our Sponsored Updates product in our field sales and self-service channels, which was launched in the third quarter of fiscal 2013, and to a lesser extent sales of our display advertising products. Sponsored Updates allows marketers to show paid content in LinkedIn members' update feeds. Sponsored content represents 19% of Marketing Solutions revenue and we expect it to continue to represent a larger percentage of Marketing Solutions revenue as we continue to gain traction in our shift to content marketing.
Net revenue from our Premium Subscriptions increased $29.9 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year as a result of an increase in the number of premium subscribers in part driven by higher member engagement. Specifically, the number of registered members is a meaningful metric in evaluating and understanding net revenue from our Premium Subscriptions because an increase in the number of registered members has historically led to a proportionate increase in the number of premium subscribers. In addition, our Sales Solutions products, which include Sales Navigator, are continuing to grow at a faster rate than our other Premium Subscription products as well as continuing to represent a larger percentage of total Premium Subscriptions revenue.
The following table presents our net revenue by geographic region:
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Revenue by geographic region:
 
 
 
 
 
United States
$
284,878

 
$
201,403

 
41
%
Other Americas (1)
31,904

 
24,176

 
32
%
Total Americas
316,782

 
225,579

 
40
%
EMEA (2)
117,871

 
75,157

 
57
%
APAC (3)
38,540

 
23,969

 
61
%
Total
$
473,193

 
$
324,705

 
46
%
 ______________________
(1)
Canada, Latin America and South America
(2)
Europe, the Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”)
(3)
Asia-Pacific (“APAC”)

25



International revenue increased $65.0 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. International revenue represented 40% of total revenue in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to 38% in the three months ended March 31, 2013. The increase in international revenue, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue, is primarily due to the expansion of our international field sales organization and our site localization efforts. As of March 31, 2014, we operated our websites and mobile applications in 22 languages, and continued our expansion outside of the United States. We expect international revenue to increase on an absolute basis and as a percentage of revenue in 2014 as we continue to focus expanding our sales force outside the United States in key markets where our member engagement supports business efforts at scale.
The following table presents our net revenue by geographic region, by product:
 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Revenue by geographic region, by product:
 
 
 
 
 
United States
 
 
 
 

Talent Solutions
$
171,477

 
$
119,993

 
43
%
Marketing Solutions
57,964

 
43,603

 
33
%
Premium Subscriptions
55,437

 
37,807

 
47
%
Total United States revenue
$
284,878

 
$
201,403

 
 
International
 
 
 
 
 
Talent Solutions
$
104,398

 
$
64,291

 
62
%
Marketing Solutions
43,819

 
31,193

 
40
%
Premium Subscriptions
40,098

 
27,818

 
44
%
Total International revenue
$
188,315

 
$
123,302

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total
$
473,193

 
$
324,705

 
 
Cost of Revenue
Our cost of revenue primarily consists of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation for our production operations, customer support, infrastructure and advertising operations teams and web hosting costs related to operating our website. Credit card processing fees, sales taxes, allocated facilities costs and other supporting overhead costs are also included in cost of revenue. Consistent with our investment philosophy for 2014, we currently expect cost of revenue to increase on an absolute basis and remain relatively flat as a percentage of revenue.
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Cost of revenue
$
62,455

 
$
42,384

 
47
%
Percentage of net revenue
13
%
 
13
%
 
 
Headcount (at period end)
838

 
529

 
58
%
Cost of revenue increased $20.1 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to increases in headcount related expenses of $12.2 million, web hosting service expenses of $4.5 million, and facilities and related costs of $3.0 million.

26


Sales and Marketing
Our sales and marketing expenses primarily consist of salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation, travel expense and incentive compensation for our sales and marketing employees. In addition, sales and marketing expenses include customer acquisition marketing, branding, advertising, public relations costs, and commissions paid to agencies, as well as allocated facilities and other supporting overhead costs. We plan to continue to invest heavily in sales and marketing to expand our global footprint, grow our current customer accounts and continue building brand awareness. Consistent with our investment philosophy for 2014, we expect sales and marketing expenses to increase on an absolute basis and decrease slightly as a percentage of revenue. 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Sales and marketing
$
166,522

 
$
109,417

 
52
%
Percentage of net revenue
35
%
 
34
%
 
 
Headcount (at period end)
2,309

 
1,656

 
39
%
Sales and marketing expenses increased $57.1 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in headcount related expenses of $48.4 million as we continue to expand our field sales organization. We also experienced increases in facilities and related costs of $3.0 million and consulting services of $2.3 million.
Product Development
Our product development expenses primarily consist of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation for our engineers, product managers and developers. In addition, product development expenses include outside services and consulting, as well as allocated facilities and other supporting overhead costs. We believe that continued investment in features, software development tools and code modification is important to achieving our strategic objectives. Consistent with our investment philosophy for 2014, we expect to continue to invest heavily in product development; therefore, we expect product development expense to increase on an absolute basis and increase slightly as a percentage of revenue.

 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Product development
$
120,622

 
$
80,672

 
50
%
Percentage of net revenue
25
%
 
25
%
 
 
Headcount (at period end)
1,482

 
1,059

 
40
%
Product development expenses increased $40.0 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in headcount related expenses of $36.5 million as a result of our focus on developing new features and products to encourage member growth and engagement. We also experienced increases in facilities and related costs of $2.6 million.
General and Administrative
Our general and administrative expenses primarily consist of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation for our executive, finance, legal, information technology, human resources and other administrative employees. In addition, general and administrative expenses include outside consulting, legal and accounting services, and facilities and other supporting overhead costs not allocated to other departments. We expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase on an absolute basis in 2014 and remain relatively flat as a percentage of revenue. In particular, we anticipate that costs related to legal proceedings will increase as we are, and expect to continue to be, subject to increasing litigation and compliance requirements. 
 

27


 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
General and administrative
$
74,618

 
$
42,784

 
74
%
Percentage of net revenue
16
%
 
13
%
 
 
Headcount (at period end)
787

 
535

 
47
%
General and administrative expenses increased $31.8 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. The increase was primarily a result of an increase in headcount related expenses of $22.3 million to support our overall growth. We also experienced increases in legal and consulting services of $6.9 million.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation and amortization expenses primarily consist of depreciation on computer equipment, software, leasehold improvements, capitalized software development costs and amortization of purchased intangibles. We expect that depreciation and amortization expenses will increase on an absolute basis and remain relatively flat as percentage of revenue as we continue to expand our technology and facilities infrastructure. 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Depreciation and amortization
$
49,740

 
$
25,806

 
93
%
Percentage of net revenue
11
%
 
8
%
 
 
Depreciation and amortization expenses increased $23.9 million in the three ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same periods last year. The increase in depreciation expense of $22.0 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 was primarily a result of our continued investment in expanding our technology infrastructure in order to support continued growth in our member base, and to a lesser extent, increases in amortization of acquired intangible assets of $2.0 million.
Other Income (Expense), Net
Other income (expense), net consists primarily of the interest income earned on our investments and foreign exchange gains and losses. Hedging strategies that we have implemented or may implement to mitigate this risk may not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations. 
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
 
($ in thousands)
Interest income
$
1,005

 
$
470

Net gain (loss) on foreign exchange and foreign currency derivative contracts
25

 
(933
)
Net realized gain on sales of marketable securities
14

 
3

Other non-operating income (expense), net
(18
)
 
152

Total other income (expense), net
$
1,026

 
$
(308
)
Other income (expense), net increased $1.3 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year. The increase was primarily due to decreases in foreign exchange losses and interest earned on higher investment balances compared to the same period last year.
Provision for Income Taxes
Provision for income taxes consists of federal and state income taxes in the United States and income taxes in certain foreign jurisdictions. We expect that our provision for income taxes may equal or exceed income before taxes in fiscal year 2014.
 

28


 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
 
 
2014
 
2013
 
% Change
 
($ in thousands)
 
 
Provision for income taxes
$
13,581

 
$
718

 
1,792
%
Income tax expense increased $12.9 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to the same period last year primarily due to the expiration of the research tax credit applicable to activities incurred after December 31, 2013, foreign tax losses which derive no benefit, acquisition costs, and non-deductible stock-based compensation. Foreign tax losses increased during the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to same period last year primarily due to international research and development expenses, which had a higher growth rate than international revenues. International research and development expenses include costs charged by LinkedIn Corporation.

Liquidity and Capital Resources
 
Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
2014
 
2013
 
(in thousands)
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows Data:
 
 
 
Purchases of property and equipment
$
88,871

 
$
44,283

Depreciation and amortization
49,740

 
25,806

 
 
 
 
Cash flows provided by operating activities
$
128,858

 
$
103,829

Cash flows used in investing activities
(447,792
)
 
(132,513
)
Cash flows provided by financing activities
24,122

 
24,629

As of March 31, 2014, we had cash and cash equivalents of $508.9 million and marketable securities of $1,797.4 million. Our cash equivalents and marketable securities are comprised primarily of U.S. agency securities, U.S. treasury securities, corporate debt securities, money market funds and commercial paper. As of March 31, 2014, the amount of cash and cash equivalents held by foreign subsidiaries was $184.0 million. If these funds are needed for our domestic operations, we would be required to accrue and pay U.S. taxes to repatriate these funds. However, our intent is to permanently reinvest these funds outside the U.S. and our current plans do not demonstrate a need to repatriate them to fund our domestic operations. We do not provide for federal income taxes on the undistributed earnings of our foreign subsidiaries. The income tax liability would be insignificant if these earnings were to be repatriated. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities balances, together with cash generated from operations, will be sufficient to meet our working capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months.
Operating Activities
Operating activities provided $128.9 million of cash in the three months ended March 31, 2014. The cash flow from operating activities consisted primarily of the changes in our operating assets and liabilities, with deferred revenue increasing $87.3 million, partially offset by an increase accounts receivable of $26.8 million, an increase in excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation of $16.0 million, which is reclassified as a financing activity, an increase in accounts payable and other liabilities of $18.4 million and an increase in prepaid expenses and other assets of $11.7 million. The increase in our deferred revenue was primarily due to increases in transaction volumes in the three months ended March 31, 2014. We had a net loss in the three months ended March 31, 2014 of $13.3 million, which included non-cash stock-based compensation of $67.8 million and non-cash depreciation and amortization of $49.7 million.
Operating activities provided $103.8 million of cash in the three months ended March 31, 2013, as a result of our improved operating performance compared to the same period last year. The cash flow from operating activities consisted primarily of the changes in our operating assets and liabilities, with deferred revenue increasing $59.3 million, partially offset by an increase in excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation of $12.6 million, which is reclassified as a financing activity, an increase in accounts receivable of $8.8 million, an increase in prepaid expenses and other assets of $9.4 million and a decrease in accounts payable and other liabilities increasing $3.5 million. The increases in our deferred revenue and accounts receivable were primarily due to increases in transaction volumes in the three months ended March 31, 2013. We had net income in the three months ended March 31, 2013 of $22.6 million, which included non-cash stock-based compensation of $33.9 million and non-cash depreciation and amortization of $25.8 million.

29


Investing Activities
Our primary investing activities have consisted of purchases of investments, purchases of property and equipment specifically related to the build out of our data centers, as well as payments for intangible assets and strategic acquisitions. We also continued to invest in technology hardware to support our growth, software to support website functionality development, website operations and our corporate infrastructure. Purchases of property and equipment may vary from period to period due to the timing of the expansion of our operations and website and internal-use software development. We expect to continue to invest in property and equipment and development of software in 2014.
In the three months ended March 31, 2014, we had net purchases of investments of $272.5 million, purchases of property and equipment of $88.9 million, and payments for intangible assets and acquisitions, net of cash acquired of $85.1 million. In the three months ended March 31, 2013, we had net purchases of investments of $87.9 million and purchases of property and equipment of $44.3 million.

Financing Activities
In the three months ended March 31, 2014 and March 31, 2013, our financing activities consisted primarily of net proceeds from the issuance of common stock from employee stock option exercises, as well as the excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation.

Off Balance Sheet Arrangements
We did not have any off balance sheet arrangements as of March 31, 2014.

Contractual Obligations
We lease office space for our headquarters in Mountain View, California, under operating leases that we expect to expire in 2023. We lease other facilities around the world, including office space in Sunnyvale, California, to be constructed by our landlord, the longest of which expires in 2026. We have several material long-term purchase obligations outstanding with third parties. We do not have any debt or material capital lease obligations. As of March 31, 2014, the following table summarizes our contractual obligations and the effect such obligations are expected to have on our liquidity and cash flow in future periods:
 
 
Payments Due by Period
 
Total
 
Less Than
1 Year
 
1 - 3
Years
 
3 - 5
Years
 
More Than
5 Years
 
(in thousands)
Operating lease obligations (1)
$
998,072

 
$
86,767

 
$
210,619

 
$
179,408

 
$
521,278

Purchase obligations
$
64,169

 
$
40,942

 
$
23,119

 
$
108

 
$

 __________________
(1)
Subsequent to March 31, 2014, we leased additional office space to be developed in San Francisco, California. We estimate aggregate future minimum lease payments of approximately $336.3 million will begin in early 2016. The lease is expected to expire in 2027.
The contractual commitment amounts in the table above are associated with agreements that are enforceable and legally binding. Obligations under contracts that we can cancel without a significant penalty are not included in the table above.
Contingent obligations arising from unrecognized tax benefits are not included in the contractual obligations because it is expected that the unrecognized benefits would only result in an insignificant amount of cash payments.

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk
We have operations both within the United States and internationally, and we are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. These risks include primarily interest rate, foreign exchange risks and inflation.
Interest Rate Fluctuation Risk

30


We had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $2,306.2 million and $2,329.3 million as of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively. This amount was invested primarily in money market funds and highly liquid investment grade fixed income securities. The cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities are held for working capital purposes. Our investment policy and strategy is focused on the preservation of capital and supporting our liquidity requirements. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes. At March 31, 2014, the weighted-average duration of our investment portfolio was less than one year.
Our fixed-income portfolio is subject to fluctuations in interest rates, which could affect our results of operations. Based on our investment portfolio balance as of March 31, 2014, a hypothetical increase in interest rates of 1% (100 basis points) would have resulted in a decrease in the fair value of our portfolio of approximately $13.3 million, and a hypothetical increase of 0.5% (50 basis points) would have resulted in a decrease in the fair value of our portfolio of approximately $6.6 million.
Foreign Currency Exchange Risks
We have foreign currency risks related to our revenue and operating expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, principally the British Pound Sterling, the Euro, the Australian dollar, the Canadian dollar, the Indian rupee and the Singapore dollar. The volatility of exchange rates depends on many factors that we cannot forecast with reliable accuracy. We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our net income (loss) as a result of gains (losses) related to remeasuring certain monetary assets and liabilities that are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. In the event our foreign currency denominated assets, liabilities, sales or expenses increase, our operating results may be more greatly affected by fluctuations in the exchange rates of the currencies in which we do business.
We enter into foreign currency derivative contracts to hedge against assets and liabilities for which we have foreign currency exposure to minimize the risk that our earnings will be adversely affected by exchange rate fluctuations. Our foreign currency derivative contracts are not designated as hedging instruments. These derivative instruments are carried at fair value with changes in the fair value recorded to other income (expense), net in our condensed consolidated statements of operations. These contracts do not subject us to material balance sheet risk due to exchange rate movements because gains and losses on these derivatives are intended to offset gains and losses on the hedged foreign currency denominated assets and liabilities.
As of March 31, 2014, we had outstanding foreign currency derivative contracts with a total notional amount of $149.2 million. If overall foreign currency exchange rates appreciated (depreciated) uniformly by 5% against the U.S. Dollar, our foreign currency derivative contracts outstanding as of March 31, 2014 would experience a loss (gain) of approximately $7.3 million.
Inflation Risk
We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. If our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Based on such evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded that as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.
Changes in Internal Control
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting identified in management’s evaluation pursuant to Rules 13a-15(d) or 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act during the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.


31


Part II. Other Information

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

We are subject to legal proceedings and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business, including, but not limited to, certain pending patent and privacy matters, including class action lawsuits, as well as inquiries, investigations, audits and other regulatory proceedings. Although occasional adverse decisions or settlements may occur, we do not believe that the final disposition of any of these matters will have a material adverse effect on our business. Certain of these matters include speculative claims for substantial or indeterminate amounts of damages, and include claims for injunctive relief. Additionally, our litigation costs are significant. Other regulatory matters could result in fines and penalties being assessed against us, and we may become subject to mandatory periodic audits, which would likely increase our regulatory compliance costs. Adverse results of litigation or regulatory matters could also result in us being required to change our business practices, which could negatively impact our membership and revenue growth.
We record a liability when we believe that it is both probable that a loss has been incurred and the amount can be reasonably estimated. Periodically, we evaluate developments in our legal matters that could affect the amount of liability that has been previously accrued, if any, and make adjustments as appropriate. Significant judgment is required to determine both likelihood of there being, and the estimated amount of, a loss related to such matters, and our judgment may be incorrect. The outcome of any proceeding is not determinable in advance. Until the final resolution of any such matters that we may be required to accrue for, we may be exposed to loss in excess of the amount accrued, and such amounts could be material.

Item 1A. Risk Factors
RISK FACTORS
Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, before deciding whether to purchase shares of our Class A common stock. If any of the following risks are realized, our business, operating results and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have a limited operating history in new and unproven markets, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful.
We have a limited operating history in new and unproven markets that may not develop as expected. This limited operating history makes it difficult to effectively assess or forecast our future prospects. You should consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and difficulties we encounter or may encounter in these rapidly evolving markets. These risks and difficulties include our ability to, among other things:
hire, integrate and retain world class talent;
continue to earn and preserve our members’ trust with respect to their professional reputation and information;
develop and maintain scalable, high-performance technology infrastructure that can efficiently and reliably handle increased member usage globally while also implementing appropriate localization, as well as the deployment of new features and products;
avoid interruptions or disruptions in our service or slower than expected load times for our services;
increase our number of members and member engagement;
responsibly use the data that our members share with us to provide solutions that make our members more productive and successful and that are critical to the talent, marketing and sales needs of enterprises and professional organizations;
process, store, protect and use personal data in compliance with governmental regulations, contractual obligations and other legal obligations related to privacy and security;
halt the operations of websites that aggregate our data as well as data from other companies, or copycat websites that have misappropriated our data;

32


increase revenue from the solutions we provide;
successfully adapt to mobile markets and optimize services for mobile devices;
successfully expand our business in markets outside the United States;
successfully compete with other companies that are currently in, or may in the future enter, the online professional networking space; and
defend ourselves against litigation, regulatory, intellectual property, privacy and other claims.
If the market for online professional networks does not develop as we expect, or if we fail to address the needs of this market, our business will be harmed. We may not be able to successfully address these risks and difficulties or others, including those described elsewhere in these risk factors. Failure to adequately address these risks and difficulties could harm our business and cause our operating results to suffer.
We may not timely and effectively scale and adapt our existing technology and network infrastructure to ensure that our services and solutions are accessible within an acceptable load time. Additionally, natural disasters or other catastrophic occurrences beyond our control could interfere with access to our services.
A key element to our continued growth is the ability of our members, users (whom we define as anyone who visits one of our websites through a computer or application on a mobile device, regardless of whether or not they are a member), enterprises and professional organizations in all geographies to access our websites, services and solutions within acceptable load times. We call this website performance. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, service disruptions, outages and other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, capacity constraints due to an overwhelming number of users accessing our services simultaneously, and denial of service or fraud or security attacks. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these website performance problems within an acceptable period of time. We expect it will become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our website performance, especially during peak usage times and as our solutions become more complex and our total user traffic increases. If our services are unavailable when users attempt to access them or they do not load as quickly as users expect, users may seek other websites or services to obtain the information for which they are looking, and may not return to our website or use our services as often in the future, or at all. This would negatively impact our ability to attract members, enterprises and professional organizations and increase engagement of our members and users. We expect to continue to make significant investments to maintain and improve website performance and to enable rapid releases of new features and products. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business and operating results may be harmed.
We have implemented a disaster recovery program, which allows us to move production to a back-up data center in the event of a catastrophe. Although this program is functional, it does not yet provide a real-time back-up data center, so if our primary data center shuts down, there will be a period of time that our services will remain shut down while the transition to the back-up data center takes place.
Our systems are also vulnerable to damage or interruption from catastrophic occurrences such as earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunication failures, terrorist attacks and similar events. Our U.S. corporate offices and certain of the facilities we lease to house our computer and telecommunications equipment are located in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California, both regions known for seismic activity. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our hosting facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our services.
We do not carry business interruption insurance sufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses, including the potential harm to the growth of our business that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of system failures.
If our security measures are compromised, or if our websites are subject to attacks that degrade or deny the ability of members or customers to access our solutions, or if our member data is compromised, members and customers may curtail or stop use of our solutions.
Our solutions involve the collection, processing, storage, sharing, disclosure and usage of members’ and customers’ information and communications, some of which may be private. We are vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins, phishing attacks, attempts to overload our servers with denial-of-service or other attacks and similar disruptions from unauthorized use of our computer systems, any of which could lead to interruptions, delays, or website shutdowns, causing loss of critical data or the unauthorized disclosure or use of personally identifiable or other confidential information. For example, in June 2012, approximately 6.5 million of our members’ encrypted passwords were stolen and published on an unauthorized website. We

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also work with third party vendors to process credit card payments by our customers and are subject to payment card association operating rules. If we experience compromises to our security that result in website performance or availability problems, the complete shutdown of our websites, or the loss or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, such as credit card information, our members or customers may be harmed or lose trust and confidence in us, and decrease the use of our website and services or stop using our services in their entirety, and we would suffer reputational and financial harm.
In addition, we are, and in the future could be, subject to regulatory investigations and litigation in connection with a security breach or related issue, and we could also be liable to third parties for these types of breaches. Such litigation, regulatory investigations and our technical activities intended to prevent future security breaches are likely to require additional management resources and expenditures. If our security measures fail to protect this information adequately or we fail to comply with the applicable credit card association operating rules, we could be liable to both our customers for their losses, as well as the vendors under our agreements with them, we could be subject to fines and higher transaction fees, we could face regulatory action, and our customers and vendors could end their relationships with us, any of which could harm our business and financial results.
Our core value of putting our members first may conflict with the short-term interests of our business.
One of our core values is to make decisions based on the best long-term interests of our members, which we believe is essential to our success in increasing our member growth rate and engagement and in serving the best, long-term interests of the company and our stockholders. Therefore, in the past, we have forgone, and may in the future forgo, certain expansion or short-term revenue opportunities that we do not believe are in the best interests of our members, even if our decision negatively impacts our operating results in the short term. In addition, as part of our philosophy of putting our members first, as long as our members are adhering to our terms of service, this philosophy may cause disagreements, or negatively impact our relationships, with our existing or prospective customers. This could result in enterprises and professional organizations blocking access to our services or refusing to purchase our Talent, Marketing or Sales Solutions or Premium Subscriptions. Our decisions may not result in the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our member engagement, business and operating results could be harmed.
The number of our registered members is higher than the number of actual members and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members. Our business may be adversely impacted if we are unable to attract and retain additional members who actively use our services.
The number of registered members in our network is higher than the number of actual members because some members have multiple registrations, other members have died or become incapacitated, and others may have registered under fictitious names or created fraudulent accounts. While the number of registered members represents what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our member base, there are inherent challenges in ensuring that the number of registered members presents an accurate reflection of our member network. For example, we do not have a reliable system for identifying and counting duplicate or fraudulent accounts, or deceased, incapacitated or other non-members and so we rely on estimates and assumptions, which may not be accurate. In addition, our methodology for measuring our membership numbers, and specifically for making estimates regarding non-members who should not be included as registered members, has changed over time and may continue to change from time to time. While we are using what we believe to be accurate methods of measuring the number of registered members, there are no methodologies available that would provide us with an exact number of non-actual member types of accounts. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our current or future methodologies are accurate, and we will need to continue to adjust them in the future from time to time, which could result in the number of registered members being lower or higher than expected. Further, a substantial majority of our members do not visit our website on a monthly basis, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members. If the number of our actual members does not meet our expectations, if the rate at which we add new members slows or declines or if we are unable to increase the breadth and frequency of our visiting members, then our business may not grow as fast as we expect.
The tracking of certain of our performance metrics is done with internal tools and is not independently verified. Certain of our performance metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.
We track certain performance metrics with internal tools, which are not independently verified by any third party. Our internal tools have a number of limitations and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may also change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we report. If the internal tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithm or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. In addition, limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our longer term strategies. If our performance metrics are not accurate representations of

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our member base or engagement levels, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics, our reputation may be harmed and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected, causing our stock price to decline.
If our members profiles are out-of-date, inaccurate or lack the information that users and customers want to see, we may not be able to realize the full potential of our network, which could adversely impact the growth of our business.
If our members do not update their information or provide accurate and complete information when they join LinkedIn, or do not establish sufficient connections, the value of our network may be negatively impacted because our value proposition as a professional network and as a source of accurate and comprehensive data will be weakened. For example, customers of our Talent Solutions may not find members that meet their qualifications or may misidentify a candidate as having such qualifications, which could result in mismatches that erode customer confidence in our solutions. Similarly, incomplete or outdated member information would diminish the ability of our Marketing or Sales Solutions customers to reach their target audiences and our ability to provide our customers with valuable insights. Therefore, we must provide features and products that demonstrate the value of our network to our members and motivate them to contribute additional, timely and accurate information to their profile and our network. If we fail to successfully motivate our members to do so, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Many individuals use mobile devices to access online services. If users of these devices do not widely adopt solutions we develop for these devices or if we are unable to effectively operate on mobile operating devices, our business could be adversely affected.
The number of people who access online services through mobile devices, as opposed to personal computers, such as smart phones, handheld tablets and mobile telephones, has increased dramatically in the past few years and is projected to continue to increase. If the mobile solutions we have developed do not meet the needs of our members or customers, they may reduce their usage of our platform and our business could suffer. Additionally, we are dependent on the interoperability of LinkedIn with popular mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS, and any changes in such systems and terms of service that degrade our solutions’ functionality, give preferential treatment to competitive products or prevent our ability to promote advertising could adversely affect engagement and monetization on mobile devices. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing products that operate effectively with these technologies, systems, networks, or standards. Each manufacturer or distributor may establish unique technical standards for its devices, and our products and services may not work or be viewable on these devices as a result. Some manufacturers may also elect not to include our products on their devices. As new devices and new platforms are continually being released, it is difficult to predict the challenges we may encounter in developing versions of our solutions for use on these alternative devices, and we are devoting significant resources to the support and maintenance of such devices.
Growth in access to LinkedIn’s services through mobile devices as a substitute for access on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results.
Our members are increasingly accessing LinkedIn on mobile devices. While many of our members who use our online services on mobile devices also access LinkedIn through personal computers, as we have developed our mobile solutions, we have seen substantial growth in mobile usage, and we anticipate that the rate of growth in mobile usage will continue to grow. Advertising is a source of revenue for us, and it is not clear that we will be able find ways for our Marketing Solutions product to be effectively used on mobile devices. While we now offer sponsored updates on mobile devices, historically, our Marketing Solutions products have not been made widely available on mobile products, and subsequently have not generated a material amount of revenue. We are devoting valuable resources to solutions related to monetization of mobile usage, and have only recently launched these solutions. We cannot assure you that these solutions will be successful. If our members increasingly use mobile devices as a substitute for access to our online services as opposed to personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our solutions on mobile devices, or these strategies are not as successful as our offerings for personal computers, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected.
Our solutions and internal systems rely on software that is highly technical, and if it contains undetected errors, our business could be adversely affected.
Our solutions and internal systems rely on software that is highly technical and complex. In addition, our solutions and internal systems depend on the ability of our software to store, retrieve, process, and manage immense amounts of data. Our software has contained, and may now or in the future contain, undetected errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Some errors in our software may only be discovered after the code has been released for external or internal use. Errors or other design defects within our software may result in a negative experience for members or customers, delay product introductions or enhancements, or result in measurement or other errors. Any errors, bugs, or defects discovered in our software could result in

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damage to our reputation, loss of members, loss of revenue, or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our business and financial results.
We collect, process, store, share, disclose and use personal information and other data, which subjects us to governmental regulations and other legal obligations related to privacy and security, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.
We collect, process, store, share, disclose and use information from and about our members, customers and users, including personal information and other data, and we enable our members to passively and proactively share their personal information with each other and with third parties and to communicate and share news and other information into and across our platform. There are numerous federal, state and local laws around the world regarding privacy and the collection, storing, sharing, using, processing, disclosing and protecting of personal information and other data from and about our members, the scope of which are changing, subject to differing interpretations, and which may be costly to comply with and may be inconsistent among countries and jurisdictions or conflict with other rules.
We generally comply with industry standards and are subject to the terms of our privacy policies and privacy-related obligations to third parties (including voluntary third-party certification bodies such as TRUSTe). We strive to comply with applicable laws, policies, and legal obligations and certain applicable industry codes of conduct relating to privacy and data protection. However, these obligations may be interpreted and applied in new ways and/or in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. Privacy and data security is an active area and new regulations are likely to be enacted. In addition, governmental agencies may request or take member or customer data for national security or informational purposes.
Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to members, customers or other third parties, or our privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personal or other information, which may include personally identifiable information or other member data, may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could cause our members and customers to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our business. Additionally, if third parties we work with, such as customers, vendors or developers, violate applicable laws, our policies or other policy-related obligations, such violations may also put our members’ information at risk and could in turn have an adverse effect on our business.
 Public scrutiny of Internet privacy and security issues may result in increased regulation and different industry standards, which could deter or prevent us from providing our current products and solutions to our members and customers, thereby harming our business.
The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is evolving and is likely to remain in flux for the foreseeable future. Practices regarding the collection, use, storage, display, processing, transmission and security of personal information by companies offering online services have recently come under increased public scrutiny. The U.S. government, including the White House, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce and many state governments, are reviewing the need for greater regulation of the collection, use and storage of information concerning consumer behavior with respect to online services, including regulation aimed at restricting certain targeted advertising practices and collection and use of data from mobile devices. The FTC in particular has approved consent decrees resolving complaints and their resulting investigations into the privacy and security practices of a number online, social media companies. Similar actions may also impact LinkedIn directly. In addition, the European Union is in the process of promulgating a new General Data Protection Regulation, which may result in significantly greater compliance burdens for companies with users and operations in Europe. Various government and consumer agencies have also called for new regulation and changes in industry practices. Recently, the State of California and other states passed laws relating to disclosure of companies’ practices with regard to Do-Not-Track signals from Internet browsers, the ability to delete information of minors, and new definitions that may impact data breach notification requirements. California and several other states have also adopted privacy guidelines with respect to mobile applications. In addition, government agencies and regulators have reviewed, are reviewing and will continue to review, our privacy policy and practices. These reviews can and have resulted in recommended changes to our products, and could result in additional recommendations in the future. If we are unable to comply with such recommendations, or if the recommended changes result in degradation of our products, our business could be harmed.
Our business, including our ability to operate and expand internationally or on new technology platforms, could be adversely affected if legislation or regulations are adopted, interpreted, or implemented in a manner that is inconsistent with our current business practices and that require changes to these practices, the design of our websites, mobile applications, products, features or our privacy policy. In particular, the success of our business has been, and we expect will continue to be, driven by our ability to responsibly use the data that our members share with us. Therefore, our business could be harmed by any

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significant change to applicable laws, regulations or industry standards or practices regarding the storage, use or disclosure of data our members choose to share with us, or regarding the manner in which the express or implied consent of consumers for such use and disclosure is obtained. Such changes may require us to modify our products and features, possibly in a material manner, and may limit our ability to develop new products and features that make use of the data that we collect about our members.
Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. and foreign laws, many of which are unsettled and still developing and which could subject us to claims or otherwise harm our business.
We are subject to a variety of laws in the United States and abroad, including laws regarding privacy, data protection, data security, data retention and consumer protection, accessibility and the provision of online payment services that are continuously evolving and developing. In addition, some of our members are subject to laws and/or licensing or certification obligations that may restrict their ability to engage with LinkedIn’s online services. The scope and interpretation of the laws and other obligations that are or may be applicable to us or certain groups of our members are often uncertain and may be conflicting, particularly laws and other obligations outside the United States. For example, laws relating to the liability of providers of online services for activities of their users and other third parties are currently being tested pursuant to actions based on, among other things, invasion of privacy and other torts, unfair competition, copyright and trademark infringement, and other theories based on the nature and content of the materials searched, the ads posted, or the content provided by users. In addition, regulatory authorities around the world are considering a number of legislative and regulatory proposals concerning privacy, data storage, data protection and other matters that may be applicable to our business. Compliance with these laws may require substantial investment or may provide technical challenges for our business. It is also likely that as our business grows, evolves, and an increasing portion of our business shifts to mobile, and our solutions are used in a greater number of countries and additional groups, we will become subject to laws and regulations in additional jurisdictions. Further, as our services and solutions expand to include more content (including from third parties), additional laws and regulations may become applicable to our products and offerings including laws requiring us to restrict the availability of such content on a geographical basis or to certain groups of members. In some cases, laws and legal obligations of various jurisdictions may be ambiguous or conflict as to LinkedIn’s right to display and distribute certain content as part of its online services. Users of our site and our solutions could also abuse or misuse our products in ways that violate laws. It is difficult to predict how existing laws will be applied to our business and the new laws and legal obligations to which we may become subject.
If we are not able to comply with these laws or other legal obligations or if we (or our members) become liable under these laws or legal obligations, or if our services are suspended or blocked, we could be directly harmed, and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce exposure to this liability. This may require us to expend substantial resources or to discontinue certain solutions, which would negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the increased attention focused upon liability issues as a result of lawsuits and legislative proposals could harm our reputation or otherwise impact the growth of our business. Any costs incurred as a result of this potential liability could harm our business and operating results.
We expect our operating results to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis, which may result in a decline in our stock price if such fluctuations result in a failure to meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors.
Our revenue and operating results could vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year and may fail to match our past performance, our projections or the expectations of securities analysts because of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. Any of these events could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to fluctuate. Factors that may contribute to the variability of our operating results include:
our ability to increase our member base and member engagement;
disruptions or outages in the availability of our websites or services, actual or perceived breaches of privacy, and compromises of our member data;
our commitment to putting our members first even if it means forgoing short-term revenue opportunities;
shifts in the way members and users access our websites and services from personal computers to mobile devices;
the unproven nature of our business model;
changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors;
our ability to increase sales of our products and solutions to new customers and expand sales of additional products and solutions to our existing customers;
the size and seasonal variability of our customers’ recruiting, marketing and sales budgets;

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the extent to which existing customers renew their agreements with us and the timing and terms of those renewals;
macroeconomic changes, in particular, deterioration in labor markets, which would adversely impact sales of our Talent Solutions, or economic growth that does not lead to job growth, for instance increases in productivity;
the cost of investing in our technology infrastructure, product initiatives and international expansion may be greater than we anticipate;
expenses related to hiring, incentivizing and retaining employees;
the timing and costs of expanding our field sales organization and delays or inability in achieving expected productivity;
the timing of certain expenditures, including hiring of employees and capital expenditures;
the entrance of new competitors in our market whether by established companies or the entrance of new companies; and
general industry and macroeconomic conditions.
Given our limited operating history and the rapidly evolving market of online professional networks, our historical operating results may not be useful to you in predicting our future operating results. We believe our rapid growth has masked the cyclicality and seasonality of our business. As our revenue growth rate slows, we expect that the cyclicality and seasonality in our business may become more pronounced and may in the future cause our operating results to fluctuate. In particular, we expect sales of Talent Solutions to be weaker in the first quarter of the year due to budgetary cycles and sales of our Marketing Solutions to be weaker in the third quarter of the year as use of online services during the summer months generally slows. In addition, global economic concerns continue to create uncertainty and unpredictability and add risk to our future outlook. Sovereign debt issues and economic uncertainty in the United States, Europe and around the world raise concerns in markets important to our business. An economic downturn in any particular region in which we do business or globally could result in reductions in sales of our Talent Solutions and Marketing Solutions, decreased renewals of existing arrangements and other adverse effects that could harm our operating results.
We expect our revenue growth rate to decline, and, as our costs increase, we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to sustain our profitability over the long term.

From 2008 to 2013, our annual net revenue grew from $78.8 million to $1,528.5 million, which represents a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 81%. As our net revenue has increased, our revenue growth rate has slowed, and we expect that it will continue to decline over time. We also expect that the growth rates of each of our three primary business lines will fluctuate and that these business lines may not grow at the same rate. As with 2013, our philosophy in 2014 is to continue to invest for future growth. We expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on:

our technology infrastructure, including architecture, development tools scalability, availability, performance and security, as well as disaster recovery measures;

product development, including investments in our product development team and the development of new features for both members and customers, including those for mobile use and our sales solutions products;

sales and marketing, including a significant expansion of our field sales organization;

international expansion in an effort to increase our member base, engagement and sales;

general administration, including legal and accounting expenses related to being a public company with an expanding global presence; and

capital expenditures, including facilities.

These investments may not result in increased revenue or growth in our business, and will increase our expenses. Even if our revenue continues to increase, we expect that due to increased expenses, in particular, stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization and provision for income taxes, we may incur a GAAP loss during future periods, including the second quarter of 2014. If we fail to continue to grow our revenue and overall business, our operating results and business would be harmed.


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We expect to face increasing competition in the market for online professional networks from social networking sites and Internet search companies, among others, as well as continued competition for customers of our Talent Solutions and Marketing Solutions.
We face significant competition in all aspects of our business, and we expect such competition to increase, particularly in the market for online professional networks and engagement of professionals.
Our industry is evolving rapidly and is becoming increasingly competitive. Larger and more established companies may focus on our market and could directly compete with us. Smaller companies, including application developers, could also launch new products and services that compete with us and that could gain market acceptance quickly. We also expect our existing competitors in the markets for Talent Solutions and Marketing Solutions to continue to focus on these areas. A number of these companies may have greater resources than us, which may enable them to compete more effectively. Specifically, we are investing significantly in our Marketing Solutions products with respect to mobile solutions, and we may not be successful in generating revenue through advertising on mobile devices, especially as compared to our competitors. Additionally, users of social networks may choose to use, or increase their use of, those networks for professional purposes, which may result in those users decreasing or eliminating their use of LinkedIn. Companies that currently focus on social networking could also expand their focus to professionals. We and other companies have historically established alliances and relationships with some of these companies to allow broader exposure to users and access to data on the Internet. We may also, in the future, establish alliances or relationships with other competitors or potential competitors. To the extent companies terminate such relationships and establish alliances and relationships with others, our business could be harmed. Specifically, we compete for members, enterprises and professional organizations as discussed below.
Members-professional networks. The market for online professional networks is new and rapidly evolving. Other companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter are developing or could develop competing solutions. Further, some of these companies are partnering with third parties to offer products and services that could compete with ours. We face competition from a number of smaller companies in international markets, such as Xing in German-speaking regions and Viadeo in France, that provide online professional networking solutions, as well as Internet companies in the customer relationship management market. Additionally, we compete against smaller companies that focus on groups of professionals within a specific industry or vertical. Our competitors may announce new products, services or enhancements that better address changing industry standards or the needs of members and customers, such as mobile access. Any such increased competition could cause pricing pressure, loss of market share or decreased member engagement, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. Internet search engines could also change their methodologies in ways that adversely affect our ability to optimize our page rankings within their search results.
Enterprises and professional organizations-Talent Solutions. With respect to our Talent Solutions, we compete with established online recruiting companies, such as Monster, CareerBuilder, and Indeed.com (owned by Recruit.net), talent management companies and larger companies that are focusing on talent management and human resource services, such as Oracle, SAP and IBM, and traditional recruiting firms. Additionally, other companies, including newcomers to the recruiting industry, may partner with Internet companies, including social networking companies, to provide services that compete with our solutions, either on their own or as third party applications. If the efficiency and usefulness of our products to enterprises and professional organizations do not continue to exceed those provided by competitors, we will not be able to compete successfully. These factors are influenced by the number and engagement of our members.
Enterprises and professional organizations-Marketing Solutions. With respect to our Marketing Solutions, we compete with online and offline outlets that generate revenue from advertisers and marketers. To the extent competitors are better able to provide customers with cost-effective access to attractive demographics, either through new business models or increased user volume, we may not be successful in retaining our existing advertisers or attracting new advertisers, and our business would be harmed.
Additionally, other companies that provide content for professionals could develop more compelling offerings that compete with our Premium Subscriptions and adversely impact our ability to sell and renew subscriptions to our members. Finally, we are developing our Sales Solutions products and we may not be able to compete effectively in this area.
If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business and operating results could be harmed.
We continue to experience rapid growth in our headcount and operations, which will continue to place significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. As of March 31, 2014, approximately 38% of our employees had been with us for less than one year and approximately 65% for less than two years. As we continue to grow, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate a large number of new employees in various countries around the world, and we must maintain the beneficial aspects of our corporate culture. In particular, we intend to continue to make substantial investments to expand our engineering, research and development, field sales, and general and administrative organizations,

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and our international operations. To attract top talent, we have had to offer, and believe we will need to continue to offer, highly competitive compensation packages before we can validate the productivity of those employees. The significant increase in the price of our Class A common stock since we became a public company in 2011 may make it more difficult or costly in the future to use equity compensation to motivate, incentivize and retain our employees. We face significant competition for talent from other Internet and high-growth companies, which include both publicly traded and privately-held companies. As we have transitioned from a private company to a public company, this competition has become even more acute in assessing appropriate compensation packages, particularly, determining the mix of cash and equity compensation. The risks of over-hiring (especially given overall macroeconomic risks) or over-compensating and the challenges of integrating a rapidly growing employee base into our corporate culture are exacerbated by our international expansion, and because of our growth, we have significantly expanded our operating lease commitments, which has increased our expenses. We may not be able to hire new employees quickly enough to meet our needs. If we fail to effectively manage our hiring needs and successfully integrate our new hires, our efficiency and ability to meet our forecasts and our employee morale, productivity and retention could suffer, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Additionally, if we do not effectively manage the growth of our business and operations, the quality of our solutions could suffer, which could negatively affect our brand, operating results and overall business. Further, we have made changes in the past, and will make changes in the future, to our features, products and services that our members or customers may not like, find useful or agree with. We may also decide to discontinue certain features, products or services, or charge for certain features, products or services that are currently free or increase fees for any of our features, products or services. If members or customers are unhappy with these changes, they may decrease their engagement on our site, or stop using features, products or services or the site generally. They may, in addition, choose to take other types of action against us such as organizing petitions or boycotts focused on our company, our website or any of our services, filing claims with the government or other regulatory bodies, or filing lawsuits against us. Any of these actions could negatively impact our member growth and engagement and our brand, which would harm our business. To effectively manage this growth, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, and our reporting systems and procedures by, among other things:
improving our information technology infrastructure to maintain the effectiveness of our solutions;
enhancing information and communication systems to ensure that our employees and offices around the world are well-coordinated and can effectively communicate with each other and our growing base of members, enterprises and professional organizations;
enhancing our internal controls to ensure timely and accurate reporting of all of our operations; and
appropriately documenting our information technology systems and our business processes.
These systems enhancements and improvements will require significant capital expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources. If we fail to implement these improvements effectively, our ability to manage our expected growth and comply with the rules and regulations that are applicable to publicly reporting companies will be impaired.
Our international operations are subject to increased challenges and risks.
We have offices around the world and our websites and mobile applications are available in numerous other languages. For the three months ended March 31, 2014, international revenue represented 40% of our total revenue. We expect to continue to expand our international operations in the future, particularly in emerging markets, by opening offices in new jurisdictions and expanding our offerings in new languages. However, we have limited operating history as a company outside the United States, and our ability to manage our business and conduct our operations internationally including in emerging markets, requires considerable management attention and resources and is subject to the particular challenges of supporting a rapidly growing business in an environment of multiple languages, cultures, customs, legal systems, alternative dispute resolution systems, regulatory systems and commercial infrastructures. International expansion has required and will continue to require us to invest significant funds and other resources. Operating internationally subjects us to new risks and may increase risks that we currently face, including risks associated with:
recruiting and retaining talented and capable employees in foreign countries and maintaining our company culture across all of our offices;
providing solutions across a significant distance, in different languages and among different cultures, including potentially modifying our solutions and features to ensure that they are culturally relevant in different countries and conform to local laws and regulations, which may include modifying content in certain jurisdictions if it may be considered objectionable or unlawful;

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increased competition from local websites and services, that provide online professional networking solutions, such as Germany-based Xing and France-based Viadeo, and online recruitment services, such as Australia-based Seek and Japan-based Recruit, who may benefit from first-mover advantages. These competitors have expanded and may continue to expand their geographic footprint;
differing and potentially lower levels of member growth and engagement in new and nascent geographies;
compliance with applicable foreign laws and regulations, which may change or conflict with each other, as well as potential risk of penalties to individual members of management if our practices are deemed to be out of compliance;
longer payment cycles in some countries;
credit risk and higher levels of payment fraud;
laws and regulations that favor local competitors or prohibit or limit foreign ownership of businesses;
legal regimes where the application of laws and regulations is subject to greater uncertainty, as well as higher risk of corruption, fraud and unethical business practices;
compliance with anti-bribery laws including, without limitation, compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Anti-Bribery Act;
implementing and maintaining effective internal processes and controls;
compliance with various economic and trade sanctions regulations which restrict certain conduct of business;
currency exchange rate fluctuations;
foreign exchange controls that might prevent us from repatriating cash earned outside the United States;
foreign exchange controls that might require significant lead time in setting up operations and bank accounts before monetizing our operations in certain geographic territories;
political and economic instability in some countries;
modifications we make to our site in certain jurisdictions due to local laws and regulations;
double taxation of our non-U.S. earnings and potentially adverse tax consequences due to changes in the tax laws of the United States or the foreign jurisdictions in which we operate; and
higher costs of doing business internationally.
If our revenue from our international operations, and particularly from our operations in the countries and regions on which we have focused our spending, do not exceed the expense of establishing and maintaining these operations, our business and operating results will suffer. In addition, as our member base expands internationally, members in certain geographies may have lower levels of engagement with our website and services. Finally, we have recently established a joint venture for the purpose of exploring the expansion of our operations in the People’s Republic of China, which is in the early stages. We will need to ensure that our business practices in China are compliant with local laws and regulations, which will result in some modifications to the way our site, as well as our products and features, function in China as compared to other countries in which we have local language sites. We will need to allocate significant resources to developing our presence in China, and we may not be successful in doing so.
Our business depends on a strong and trusted brand, and any failure to maintain, protect and enhance our brand would hurt our ability to retain or expand our base of members, enterprises and professional organizations, our ability to increase their level of engagement and our ability to attract and retain high level employees.
We have developed a strong and trusted brand that we believe has contributed significantly to the success of our business. Our brand is predicated on the idea that individual professionals will trust us and find immense value in building and maintaining their professional identities and reputations on our platform. Maintaining, protecting and enhancing the “LinkedIn,” “SlideShare” and related brands is critical to expanding our base of members, enterprises, advertisers, corporate customers and other partners, and increasing their engagement with our services, and will depend largely on our ability to maintain member trust, be a technology leader and continue to provide high-quality solutions, which we may not do successfully. Despite our efforts to protect our brand and prevent its misuse, if others misuse our brand or pass themselves off as being endorsed or affiliated with us, it could harm our reputation and our business could suffer. If our members or potential members determine that they can use other platforms, such as social networks, for the same purposes as or as a replacement for our network, or if they choose to blend their professional and social networking activities, our brand and our business could be harmed. Our members or customers could find that new products or features that we introduce are difficult to use or may feel that they

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degrade their experience with online service offered by LinkedIn, which could harm our reputation for delivering high-quality products. Our brand is also important in attracting and maintaining high performing employees. If we do not successfully maintain a strong and trusted brand, our business could be harmed.
We may not be able to halt the operations of online services that aggregate our data as well as data from other companies, including social networks, or copycat online services that have misappropriated our data in the past or may misappropriate our data in the future. These activities could harm our brand and our business.
From time to time, third parties have accessed data from our networks through scraping, robots or other means and used this data or aggregated this data on their online services with other data. In addition, “copycat” online services have misappropriated data on our network and attempted to imitate our brand or the functionality of our services, and these services or others could use similar tactics to develop products that compete with ours. These activities could degrade our brand, negatively impact our website performance and harm our business. When we have become aware of such online services, in many instances we have employed contractual, technological or legal measures in an attempt to halt unauthorized activities, but these measures may not be successful. In addition, if our customers do not comply with our terms of service, they also may be able to abuse our products and services and provide access to our solutions to unauthorized users. However, we may not be able to detect any or all of these types of activities in a timely manner and, even if we could, technological and legal measures may be insufficient to stop their operations. In some cases, particularly in the case of online services operating from outside of the United States, our available legal remedies may not be adequate to protect our business against such activities. Regardless of whether we can successfully enforce our rights against these parties, any measures that we may take could require us to expend significant financial or other resources.
Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business and operating results.
We regard the protection of our trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, databases, domain names and patents as critical to our success. We strive to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights and other rights provided under foreign laws, as well as through contractual restrictions. We have a practice of entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and often enter into confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our proprietary information. However, these contractual arrangements and the other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent the misappropriation of our proprietary information, infringement of our intellectual property rights or deter independent development of similar or competing technologies by others.
Obtaining and maintaining effective intellectual property rights is expensive, including the costs of defending our rights. We are seeking to protect our trademarks and patents, and other intellectual property rights in a number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and may not be successful in all jurisdictions for every such right or which we may not pursue in every location. In particular, we believe it’s important maintain, protect and enhance the “LinkedIn” and “SlideShare” brands. Accordingly, we pursue the registration of domain names and our trademarks and service marks in the United States and in certain locations outside the United States. We have already and may, over time, increase our investment in protecting innovations through investments in patents and similar rights that is expensive and time-consuming.
Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our proprietary rights or determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights claimed by others. Any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. We may incur significant costs in enforcing our trademarks against those who attempt to imitate our “LinkedIn” brand and other valuable trademarks and service marks.
In addition, we have chosen to make certain of our technology available under open source licenses that allow others to use the technology without payment to us. While we hope to benefit from these activities by having access to others’ useful technology under open source licenses, there is no assurance that we will receive the business benefits we expect.

If we fail to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property rights, our business and operating results may be harmed, and the market price of our Class A common stock could decline.
We are, and expect in the future to be, subject to legal proceedings and litigation, including intellectual property and privacy disputes, which are costly to defend and could materially harm our business and operating results.
We are party to lawsuits and legal proceedings in the normal course of business. These matters are often expensive and disruptive to normal business operations. We are currently facing, or may face in the future, allegations, lawsuits and regulatory inquiries, audits and investigations regarding data privacy, security, labor and employment and intellectual property infringement, including claims related to privacy, patents, publicity, trademarks, copyrights and other rights. Litigation and

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regulatory proceedings, and particularly the patent infringement and class action matters we are facing or may face, may be protracted and expensive, and the results are difficult to predict. Certain of these matters include speculative claims for substantial or indeterminate amounts of damages, and include claims for injunctive relief. Additionally, our litigation costs are significant. Adverse outcomes with respect to litigation or any of these legal proceedings may result in significant settlement costs or judgments, penalties and fines, or require us to modify our products and features or require us to stop offering certain features, all of which could negatively impact our membership and revenue growth. Additionally, we are subject to mandatory periodic audits, which would likely increase our regulatory compliance costs, and may require us to change our business practices, which could negatively impact our revenue growth. Managing legal proceedings, litigation and audits, even if we achieve favorable outcomes, is time‑consuming and diverts management’s attention from our business.
In addition, we use open source software in our solutions and plan to continue to use open source software in the future. We may face claims from others claiming ownership of open source software, or breach of open source license terms, including a demand for release of material portions of our source code or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could also result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license, require us to establish specific open source compliance procedures, or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions, any of which would have a negative effect on our business and operating results.
The results of regulatory proceedings, litigation, claims and audits cannot be predicted with certainty, and determining reserves for pending litigation and other legal, regulatory and audit matters requires significant judgment. There can be no assurance that our expectations will prove correct, and even if these matters are not resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, these matters, and the time and resources necessary to litigate or, resolve them, could harm our business, our operating results, our reputation or the market price of our Class A common stock.
If we do not continue to attract new customers, or if existing customers do not renew their subscriptions, renew on less favorable terms, or fail to purchase additional solutions, we may not achieve our revenue projections, and our operating results would be harmed.
In order to grow our business, we must continually attract new customers, sell additional solutions to existing customers and reduce the level of non-renewals in our business. Our ability to do so depends in large part on the success of our sales and marketing efforts. We do not typically enter into long-term contracts with our customers, and even when we do, they can generally terminate their relationship with us. We have limited historical data with respect to rates of customer renewals, upgrades and expansions, so we may not accurately predict future trends for any of these metrics. Furthermore, the nature of our products and solutions is such that customers may decide to terminate or not renew their agreements with us without causing significant disruptions to their own businesses.
We must demonstrate that our Talent Solutions are an important recruiting tool for enterprises and professional organizations and that our Marketing and Sales Solutions provide them with access to an audience of one of the most influential, affluent and highly educated audiences on the Internet. However, potential customers may not be familiar with our solutions or may prefer other more traditional products and services for their talent, advertising and marketing needs.
The rate at which we expand our customer base or increase our customers’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate because of several factors, including the prices of our solutions, the prices of products and services offered by our competitors, reduced hiring by our customers or reductions in their talent or marketing spending levels due to macroeconomic or other factors and the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of our solutions. If we do not attract new customers or if our customers do not renew their agreements for our solutions, renew on less favorable terms, or do not purchase additional functionality or offerings, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected or decline.
Ultimately, attracting new customers and retaining existing customers requires that we continue to provide high quality solutions that our customers value. In particular, our Talent Solutions customers will discontinue their purchases of our solutions if we fail to effectively connect them with the talent they seek, and our premium subscribers will discontinue their subscriptions if they do not find the networking and business opportunities that they value. Similarly, customers of our Marketing Solutions will not continue to do business with us if their advertisements do not reach their intended audiences. Therefore we must continue to demonstrate to our customers that using our Marketing Solutions is the most effective and cost-efficient way to maximize their results. Even if our Marketing Solutions are providing value to our customers, advertisers are sensitive to general economic downturns and reductions in consumer spending, among other events and trends, which generally results in reduced advertising expenditures and could adversely affect sales of our Marketing Solutions. Finally, we are in the early stages of developing our sales solutions products which may not be successful. If we fail to provide high quality solutions and convince customers of our value proposition, we may not be able to retain existing customers or attract new customers, which would harm our business and operating results.

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Because we recognize most of the revenue from our Talent Solutions and our Premium Subscriptions over the term of the agreement, a significant downturn in these businesses may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.
We recognize most of the revenue from sales of our Talent Solutions and Premium Subscriptions over the terms of the agreements, which is typically 12 months. As a result, a significant portion of the revenue we report in each quarter is generated from agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed agreements in any one quarter may not significantly impact our revenue in that quarter but will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. In addition, we may be unable to adjust our fixed costs in response to reduced revenue. Accordingly, the effect of significant declines in the sales of these offerings may not be reflected in our short-term results of operations.
We depend on world class talent to grow and operate our business, and if we are unable to hire, retain and motivate our personnel, we may not be able to grow effectively.
Our future success will depend upon our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain world class talent. Our ability to execute efficiently is dependent upon contributions from all of our employees, in particular our senior management team. Key institutional knowledge remains with a small group of long-term employees whom we may not be able to retain. We may not be able to retain the services of any of our long-term employees or other members of senior management in the future. We do not have employment agreements other than offer letters with any key employee, and we do not maintain key person life insurance for any employee. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our senior management team that may be disruptive to our business. If our senior management team, including any new hires that we may make, fails to work together effectively and to execute our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business could be harmed.
Our growth strategy also depends on our ability to expand and retain our organization with world class talent. Identifying, recruiting, training and integrating qualified individuals will require significant time, expense and attention. In addition to hiring new employees, we must continue to focus on retaining our best talent. Competition for these resources, particularly for engineers, is intense, and competition for the facilities to house our employees is also intense, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters is located. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity for new employees and we may never realize returns on these investments, and we also are investing heavily in our facilities. If we are not able to effectively increase and retain our talent, our ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely impacted, and our business will be harmed.
We believe that our culture has the potential to be a key contributor to our success. From 2012 to 2013, we increased the size of our workforce by more than 46%, and we expect to continue to hire aggressively as we expand. If we do not continue to develop our corporate culture as we grow and evolve, including maintaining our culture of transparency with our employees, it could harm our ability to foster the innovation, creativity and teamwork we believe we need to support our growth. In addition, we completed our initial public offering in May 2011. As a result, employees who have been with us for longer than three years have been able to and may continue to realize substantial financial gains in connection with the sales of their shares from the exercise of their vested options, which could result in a loss of employees. There will likely be disparities of wealth between those of our employees whom we hired prior to our initial public offering in May 2011 and those who joined us after we became a public company, which could adversely impact relations among employees and our culture in general.
The effectiveness of our Marketing Solutions depends in part on our relationships with advertising serving technology companies.
We rely, in part, on advertising serving technology companies to deliver our Marketing Solutions product. Our agreements with these companies may not be extended or renewed after their respective expirations, or we may not be able to extend or renew our agreements on terms and conditions favorable to us. If these agreements are terminated, we may not be able to enter into agreements with alternative companies on acceptable terms or on a timely basis or both, which could negatively impact revenue from our Marketing Solutions.
Enterprises or professional organizations, including governmental agencies, may restrict access to our services, which could lead to the loss or slowing of growth in our member base or the level of member engagement.

Our solutions depend on the ability of our members to access the Internet and our services. Enterprises or professional organizations, including governmental agencies, could block or restrict access to our online services, website or the Internet generally for a number of reasons such as security or confidentiality concerns or regulatory reasons, or they may adopt policies that prohibit listing the employers’ names on the employees’ LinkedIn profiles in order to minimize the risk that employees will be contacted and hired by other employers.

In some cases, certain governments may seek to restrict the Internet or our service providers’ websites, services and solutions and the performance of our websites, services and solutions could be suspended, blocked (in whole or part) or

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otherwise adversely impacted in these jurisdictions. For example, the government of the People’s Republic of China has blocked access to many social networking and other sites, including ours, and certain self-regulatory organizations have policies that could result in access to our content, services or features being blocked. Any restrictions on the use of our services by our members and users could lead to the loss or slowing of growth in our member base or the level of member engagement.
If Internet search engines’ methodologies are modified or our search result page rankings decline for other reasons, our member engagement could decline.
We depend in part on various Internet search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!, to direct a significant amount of traffic to our website. Similarly, we depend on providers of mobile application “store fronts” to allow users to locate and download our mobile applications that enable our service. Our ability to maintain the number of visitors directed to our website and users of our online services is not entirely within our control. Our competitors’ search engine optimization, or SEO, efforts may result in their websites receiving a higher search result page ranking than ours, or Internet search engines could revise their methodologies in an attempt to improve their search results, which could adversely affect the placement of our search result page ranking. If search engine companies modify their search algorithms in ways that are detrimental to our new user growth or in ways that make it harder for our members to use our website, or if our competitors’ SEO efforts are more successful than ours, overall growth in our member base could slow, member engagement could decrease, and we could lose existing members. These modifications may be prompted by search engine companies entering the online professional networking market or aligning with competitors. Our website has experienced fluctuations in search result rankings in the past, and we anticipate similar fluctuations in the future. Any reduction in the number of users directed to our websites would harm our business and operating results.
Our business depends on continued and unimpeded access to the Internet by us and our members on personal computers and mobile devices. If government regulations relating to the Internet or other areas of our business change, if Internet access providers are able to block, degrade, or charge for access to certain of our products and services, or if third parties disrupt access to the Internet, we could incur additional expenses and the loss of members and customers.
Our products and services depend on the ability of our members and customers to access the Internet through their personal computers and mobile devices. Currently, this access is provided by companies that have significant market power in the broadband and Internet access marketplace, including incumbent telephone companies, cable companies, mobile communications companies, and government-owned service providers, any of whom could take actions that degrade, disrupt, or increase the cost of user access to our products or solutions, which would, in turn, negatively impact our business. In addition, Internet access could be disrupted by other third parties. Further, the adoption of any laws or regulations that adversely affect the growth, popularity or use of the Internet, including laws limiting Internet neutrality, could decrease the demand for our subscription service or the usage of our services and increase our cost of doing business.

Our growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties.
We anticipate that we will continue to depend on relationships with various third parties, including technology, access to platforms and content providers to grow our business. Identifying, negotiating and maintaining relationships with third parties requires significant time and resources, as does integrating third-party content and technology. Our agreements with technology and content providers and similar third parties are typically non-exclusive and do not prohibit them from working with our competitors or from offering competing services. In some cases, in particular, with respect to content providers, these relationships are undocumented, or, if there are agreements in place, they may be easily terminable. Our competitors may be effective in providing incentives to these parties to favor their solutions or may prevent us from developing strategic relationships with these parties. These third parties may decide that working with LinkedIn is not in their interest. In addition, these third parties may not perform as expected under our agreements with them, and we have had, and may in the future have, disagreements or disputes with these parties, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation. It is possible that these third parties may not be able to devote the resources we expect to the relationship or they may terminate their relationships with us. Further, as users increasingly access our services through mobile devices, we are becoming more dependent on the distribution of our mobile applications through third parties, and we may not be able to access their application program interfaces or be able to distribute our applications or provide ease of integration, and this may also impact our ability to monetize our mobile products. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with third parties, our ability to compete in the marketplace or to grow our business could be impaired, and our operating results would suffer. Even if we are successful, these relationships may not result in improved operating results.

If currency exchange rates fluctuate substantially in the future, the results of our operations, which are reported in U.S. dollars, could be adversely affected.

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As we continue to expand our international operations, we become more exposed to the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. We incur expenses for employee compensation and other operating expenses at our non-U.S. locations in the local currency, and accept payment from customers in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Since we conduct business in currencies other than U.S. dollars but report our financial results in U.S. dollars, we face exposure to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Consequently, exchange rate fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and other currencies could have a material impact on our profitability. Although we hedge a portion of our international currency exposure, significant fluctuations in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies may adversely affect our net income (loss). Additionally, hedging programs rely on our ability to forecast accurately and could expose us to additional risks that could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
The intended tax efficiency of our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements depend on the application of the tax laws of various jurisdictions and on how we operate our business, and changes to our effective tax rate could adversely impact our results.
Our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements, including the manner in which we develop and use our intellectual property and the transfer pricing of our intercompany transactions, are intended to optimize business efficiency as well as reduce our worldwide effective tax rate. The application of the tax laws of various jurisdictions, including the United States and the other jurisdictions in which we operate, to our international business activities is subject to interpretation and depends on our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or for transfer pricing on intercompany arrangements. In particular, our non-U.S. headquarters is located in Dublin, Ireland, but tax authorities in other jurisdictions where we operate may make a determination that the manner in which we operate results in our business not achieving the intended tax consequences. This could increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operations. Our effective tax rate could be adversely affected by several other factors, many of which are outside of our control, such as: increases in expenses that are not deductible for tax purposes, the tax effects of restructuring charges or purchase accounting for acquisitions, changes related to our ability to ultimately realize future benefits attributed to our deferred tax assets, including those related to other-than-temporary impairment, and a change in our decision to indefinitely reinvest foreign earnings. Further, we are currently undergoing review and audit by both domestic and foreign tax authorities and expect such actions to continue in the future. Any adverse outcome of such a review or audit could have a negative effect on our operating results and financial condition.
The enactment of legislation implementing changes in the U.S. taxation of international business activities, the adoption of other tax reform policies or changes in tax legislation or policies in jurisdictions outside the United States could materially impact our financial position and results of operations.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have released draft proposals to reform the U.S. system for taxing cross-border income. Possible future changes to U.S. tax laws, including limitations on the ability of taxpayers to claim and utilize foreign tax credits and the deferral of certain tax deductions until earnings outside of the United States are repatriated to the United States, as well as changes to U.S. tax laws that may be enacted in the future, could impact the tax treatment of our foreign earnings and adversely impact our effective tax rate. Additionally, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ("OECD") is focused on developing resolutions in various areas, including addressing the “tax challenges of the digital economy” and definitional changes to permanent establishment, which could ultimately impact the tax treatment of our foreign earnings and adversely impact our effective tax rate. Due to the large and expanding scale of our international business activities, any changes in the U.S. or international taxation of such activities may increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operations.

We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new features and products or enhance our existing solutions, improve our operating infrastructure or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. Any debt financing we secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired, and our business may be harmed.

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Acquisitions and investments could result in operating difficulties, dilution, and other harmful consequences that may adversely impact our business and results of operations.
We have made and will continue to make acquisitions to add employees, complementary companies, products, or technologies. These transactions could be material to our financial condition and results of operations. We also expect to continue to evaluate and enter into discussions regarding a wide array of potential strategic transactions. The process of integrating an acquired company, business, or technology has created, and will continue to create, unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. The areas where we face risks include:
loss of key employees of the acquired company and other challenges associated with integrating new employees into our culture, as well as reputational harm if integration is not successful;
diversion of management time and focus from operating our business to acquisition integration challenges;
implementation or remediation of controls, procedures, and policies at the acquired company;
integration of the acquired company’s accounting, human resource, and other administrative systems, and coordination of product, engineering, and sales and marketing function;
assumption of contractual obligations that contain terms that are not beneficial to us, require us to license or waive intellectual property rights or increase our risk for liability;
failure to successfully further develop the acquired technology; and
liability for activities of the acquired company before the acquisition, including patent and trademark infringement claims, violations of laws, commercial disputes, tax liabilities, and other known and unknown liabilities.
These risks or other problems encountered in connection with our acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions or investments, incur unanticipated liabilities, and adversely affect our business generally.
Future acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, or amortization expenses, or write-offs of goodwill, any of which could harm our financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock
The dual class structure of our common stock as contained in our charter documents has the effect of concentrating voting control with those stockholders who held our stock prior to our initial public offering, including our founders and our executive officers, employees and directors and their affiliates, and limiting our other stockholders’ ability to influence corporate matters.
Our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. Stockholders who hold shares of Class B common stock, including our founders, and our executive officers, employees and directors and their affiliates, together held approximately 61.3% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock as of March 31, 2014. Our co-founder and Chair, Reid Hoffman, held approximately 12.5% of our outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock, representing approximately 55.9% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock as of March 31, 2014. Mr. Hoffman has significant influence over the management and affairs of the company and over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets. Mr. Hoffman will continue to have significant influence over these matters for the foreseeable future.
In addition, the holders of Class B common stock collectively will continue to be able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval even if their stock holdings represent less than 50% of the outstanding shares of our common stock. Because of the 10-to-1 voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively will continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock even when the shares of Class B common stock represent as little as 10% of the combined voting power of all outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock. This concentrated control will limit the ability of our Class A stockholders to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future, and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
Future transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, which will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, Mr. Hoffman retains a significant portion of his holdings of Class B common stock for an extended period of time, he could, in the future, continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our Class A and Class B common stock. As a board member, Mr. Hoffman owes a fiduciary duty to our stockholders

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and must act in good faith in a manner he reasonably believes to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Hoffman is entitled to vote his shares in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.
Our stock price has been volatile in the past and may be subject to volatility in the future.
The trading price of our Class A common stock has been volatile historically, and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. During fiscal year 2014, the closing price of our Class A common stock ranged from $148.06 to $230.56 through April 30, 2014. Fluctuations in the valuation of companies perceived by investors to be comparable to us or in valuation metrics, such as our price to earnings ratio, could impact our stock price. Additionally, the stock markets have at times experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and might in the future affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. These fluctuations have, in some cases, been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. Further, the trading prices of publicly traded shares of companies in our industry have been particularly volatile and may be very volatile in the future. These broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes, international currency fluctuations or political unrest, may negatively impact the market price of our Class A common stock. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could harm our business.

There may be a limited market for investors in our industry.
There are few publicly traded companies in the social and professional networking and related industries at this time, and we were among the first social networking companies to go public. Investors may have limited funds to invest in the social and professional networking sector, and as publicly traded securities in these industries become more available, investors who have purchased or may in the future purchase securities in this sector may choose to sell LinkedIn securities that they have already purchased in favor of other companies, and/or choose to invest in other companies, including our competitors. As a result, demand for our Class A common stock could decline, which would result in a corresponding decline in our stock price.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include provisions that:
authorize our board of directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, up to 100,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock;
require that any action to be taken by our stockholders be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;
specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our board of directors, the Chair of our board of directors, or our Chief Executive Officer;
establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder proposals to be brought before an annual meeting, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our board of directors;
establish that our board of directors is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II and Class III, with each class serving three-year staggered terms;
prohibit cumulative voting in the election of directors;
provide that our directors may be removed only for cause;
provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum;
require the approval of our board of directors or the holders of a supermajority of our outstanding shares of capital stock to amend our bylaws and certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation; and
reflect two classes of common stock, as discussed above.

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These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, institutional shareholder representative groups, shareholder activists and others may disagree with our corporate governance provisions or other practices, including our dual class structure and the other anti-takeover provisions, such as those listed above. We generally will consider recommendations of institutional shareholder representative groups, but we will make decisions based on what our board and management believe to be in the best long term interests of our company and stockholders. Our dual class structure concentrates the voting power of our stock in a small group of stockholders who would have the ability to control the outcome of a stockholder vote. Additionally, these groups could make recommendations to our stockholders against our practices or our board members if they disagree with our positions. Finally, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder.
If securities or industry analysts publish reports that are interpreted negatively by the investment community or publish negative research reports about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends, to some extent, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more analysts publish research reports that are interpreted negatively by the investment community, or have a negative tone regarding our business, industry or end-markets, our share price could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.
The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, the listing requirements of the NYSE and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased and will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly, and increase demand on our systems and resources.
We have and will continue to consume management resources and incur significant expenses for Section 404 compliance on an ongoing basis. In the event that our chief executive officer, chief financial officer, or independent registered public accounting firm determines in the future that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective as defined under Section 404, we could be subject to one or more investigations or enforcement actions by state or federal regulatory agencies, stockholder lawsuits or other adverse actions requiring us to incur defense costs, pay fines, settlements or judgments and causing investor perceptions to be adversely affected and potentially resulting in a decline in the market price of our stock.
In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.
As a public company that is subject to these rules and regulations, we may find that it is more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors and qualified executive officers.

49


We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
The table below provides information with respect to repurchases of unvested shares of our Class B common stock made pursuant to the 2003 Plan. No shares of our Class A common stock were repurchased during the period.
 
Period
Total
Number of
Shares
Purchased (1)
 
Weighted
Average
Price Paid
per Share
 
Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs
 
Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be
Purchased Under the Plans or Programs
January 1 - January 31, 2014

 
$

 

 

February 1 - February 28, 2014

 

 

 

March 1 - March 31, 2014
1,008

 
6.20

 

 

Total
1,008

 
$
6.20

 

 
 
 ______________________
(1)
Under the 2003 Plan, participants may exercise options prior to vesting, subject to a right of a repurchase by us. All shares in the above table were shares repurchased as a result of us exercising this right and not pursuant to a publicly announced plan or program.



50


Item 6. Exhibits
 
Exhibit
Number
  
  
10.1+*
 
2014 Executive Bonus Compensation Plan
 
 
 
31.1
  
Certification of Principal Executive Officer Required Under Rule 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
 
 
 
31.2
  
Certification of Principal Financial Officer Required Under Rule 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
 
 
 
32.1
  
Certification of Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer Required Under Rule 13a-14(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and 18 U.S.C. §1350.
 
 
 
101.INS
  
XBRL Instance Document
 
 
 
101.SCH
  
XBRL Taxonomy Schema Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.CAL
  
XBRL Taxonomy Calculation Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.DEF
  
XBRL Taxonomy Definition Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.LAB
  
XBRL Taxonomy Labels Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.PRE
  
XBRL Taxonomy Presentation Linkbase Document
 
 
 
+
 
Indicates a management contract or compensatory plan.
 
 
 
*
 
Portions of this exhibit have been omitted pending a determination by the Securities and Exchange Commission as to whether these portions should be granted confidential treatment.

 


Signatures
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
 
 
 
LINKEDIN CORPORATION
 
 
 
 
Dated:
May 1, 2014
By:
/s/    Jeffrey Weiner
 
 
 
Jeffrey Weiner
 
 
 
Chief Executive Officer and Director
(Principal Executive Officer)
 
 
 
 
Dated:
May 1, 2014
By:
/s/    Steven Sordello
 
 
 
Steven Sordello
 
 
 
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
(Principal Financial Officer)

51


Exhibit Index
 
Exhibit
Number
  
  
 
 
 
10.1+*
 
2014 Executive Bonus Compensation Plan
 
 
 
31.1
  
Certification of Principal Executive Officer Required Under Rule 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
 
 
 
31.2
  
Certification of Principal Financial Officer Required Under Rule 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
 
 
 
32.1
  
Certification of Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer Required Under Rule 13a-14(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and 18 U.S.C. §1350.
 
 
 
101.INS
  
XBRL Instance Document
 
 
 
101.SCH
  
XBRL Taxonomy Schema Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.CAL
  
XBRL Taxonomy Calculation Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.DEF
  
XBRL Taxonomy Definition Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.LAB
  
XBRL Taxonomy Labels Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.PRE
  
XBRL Taxonomy Presentation Linkbase Document
 
 
 
+
 
Indicates a management contract or compensatory plan.
 
 
 
*
 
Portions of this exhibit have been omitted pending a determination by the Securities and Exchange Commission as to whether these portions should be granted confidential treatment.