Reuters first to report LinkedIn`s plans to go public in 2011

Reuters exclusively reported on Jan 5 that social networking site LinkedIn plans to launch an initial public offering this year and has lined up financial underwriters including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JPMorgan. Sources exclusively told Reuters that LinkedIn wants to go public ahead of Facebook, which is expected to tap the market in 2012. Almost every Reuters competitor tried to match the story the next day, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Bloomberg, Fox Business, CNBC, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times and multiple trade publications. While the valuation of a LinkedIn IPO is still unknown, trading of its stock on online secondary market SharesPost gives LinkedIn an implied valuation of around $2.2 billion.