Here’s the thing I love about Reid Hoffman. There’s no “We-don’t-comment-on-rumors-and-speculation” BS with him. You ask him a question and he gives you an answer.
So you don’t need a bunch of words from me, just go to the jump and watch our final backstage interview of the conference where Hoffman talks about whether LinkedIn will buy Xing and whether it’ll file to go public this year.
Also, Hoffman names the three other tech companies he thinks can price pretty much whenever they want. (And lucky him, he’s an investor in two.)
Personally, I do not recommend LinkedIn buying Xing. Xing market mostly in Europe, I think if LinkedIn buy Xing, it will happen the same things happened with eBay and Skype.
Thanks
http://www.OnlyJust.net
Agree – the company culture of Xing and linkedIn are orthogonal.
What the hell is Xing anyway? I mean huh? Redundant.
Anyway, lose some weight man your gonna die young and not enjoy that IPO.
Love to cash in my stock when you make that IPO happen.
Wake up and Smell the Coffee…
TechCrunch50 should be like this. The judges are straight to the point.
http://www.yout...h?v=HDczbpIO85g
Xing is terrible.
Reid,
Seriously man, precor.com !!!
ceodotorg
I’d love to see Facebook acquired LinkedIn, as it will complement Facebook’s business model (revenue stream).
Yeah – consolidation so we have only one company to work with. Oh and yes, I love Monopoly. Ah and look how great the US auto industry did when consolidating GM and Ford to global leaders against about 50 completely unimportant car makers – not to forget Microsoft – don’t we love how great it is – we don’t have to think of choices just take Windows
LinkedIn should just “borrow” some of FB’s social ads features to diversify its revenue base…then ask Microsoft for 15B…
It’s a good point the one that you raise.
From personal experience in alumni affairs and community building, most people are more comfortable with Facebook than with LinkedIn. Alumni are more interested in reconnecting with their friends and peers on Facebook than in LinkedIn.
This is quite surprising. However, the same happens on the HR industry. From a recent survey, 29% of U.S. HR professionals use Facebook to screen job applicants while 26% use LinkedIn.
Quite an interesting interview. He really understands the business and what LinkedIn needs to do to make an impact online. I’m not sure they will make the leap that Facebook has made to mass appeal or even appeal to 70% of professionals but it will be fascinating to watch.
Seriously love that guy.
LinkedIn fuckin’ sucks.
Great interviews Sarah! Really enjoy them.
Hoffman seems like he’d be a great guy to work with.
There will be no comment from Xing on this, as it is illegal by German law to comment on rumours if you are a publicly listed company.
I don’t think it would be good for xing to move so near to LinkedIn. xing is the no. 1 in Germany, which still is one of the largest online markets of the world. Xing also has great conversion rates to premium users, a very good user-base in Spain, Turkey and China. Plus (in Germany) Xing is between Facebook and LinkedIn when it comes down to how it is used and by whom.
Even though Facebook is growing in Germany, it would be unthinkable that users use it for half-business communication as in the US or UK. Given the spamminess of Facebook this will not change in even the next years.
I like both services and I would like to see them continue their competition. Both have their merits.
By the way: I am in no way affiliated with Xing and most definitively not on their payroll
As mentioned by Simon, would be a very good business model with Facebook and LinkedIn.
But the reality is Facebook has bought friendfeed, see how they work together, and if they create any business model.
I dislike nearly everything about using Linkedin. The pages are overloaded and poorly organized, and it seems to have the login>comment system backwards.
I like the XING rumours! Will see the price is @220 Million $´s
Reid needs to get a personal trainer. The web cannot afford to lose this man to a heart attack.
what were the other companies he mentioned? couldn’t hear it properly in the interview. fb, linkedin, xing, and…?
Reid’s comments and just about all the other judge’s about the lack of good companies is alarming.
It seems that having Calcanis choosing the demo companies is not working with the more qualified judges.
Agree with Reid. The next round of companies to watch for IPO’s will be the ones with scale: Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Glam Media, eHarmony, and AOL’s IPO. All these are new media companies and should have $1B+ IPO’s if they wait for the right market timing.
what’s a good blog for enterprise startups? sarah mentions in the video that techcrunch doesn’t cover them much.
A summer 2009 survey conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com indicates that only 26% % of U.S. HR professionals use LinkedIn to search for the names of their job candidates. This percentage is lower than the 29% of U.S. HR professional that use Facebook and the 47% that use Google for the same purpose.
http://idaconcp...er-of-linkedin/
Well not a very nice comment regarding our friend’s morphological make-up. Please leave a message that warrants a response next-time and have some type of decorum that reflects professionalism. Shame on you.
Agreed.
It’s the kind of juvenile/pointless commentary that separates the market makers from the market fakers.