LinkedIn reportedly preparing to go public this year

LinkedIn could be aiming to go public this year, if a report from Reuters is to be believed today.

According to the report, LinkedIn has selected its financial underwriters for the process, although Reuters’ sources haven’t commented on the value of the Initial Public Offering. If true, the professional social network could beat other speculated tech IPOs like Facebook and Zynga to the punch.

However, LinkedIn declined to give any detailed comment on the rumour, telling Reuters “An IPO is just one of many tactics that we could consider”.

The news comes just days after US investment firm Goldman Sachs put $450 million into Facebook. The company is offering this stock to its wealthy clients, although the deadline for those clients to express interest has reportedly been brought forward to today due to a high level of interest. According to Fortune, Facebook is raising this round in order to remain below the 500-shareholder limit beyond which itwould be forced to publicly disclose its financial results. So, the thinking is Facebook may well be steering clear of going public for now.

LinkedIn claims to have 85 million members and to be growing fast, although as we noted back in September, it’s not without its problems as a service. We’ll be watching how this story develops.