LinkedIn had its initial public offering in 2011. The company priced its IPO in May of that year and began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LNKD.
The offering attracted exceptional attention because it was one of the first major social-network IPOs of the era. LinkedIn priced 7.84 million shares at $45 each. On its first trading day, the stock closed at $94.25, more than doubling from the offering price and intensifying debate about technology-company valuations.
The 2011 event was LinkedIn's IPO, not its later follow-on offering, which also occurred in 2011. Another important date is 2016, when Microsoft announced and completed its acquisition of LinkedIn for approximately $26.2 billion. LinkedIn subsequently stopped being an independently traded public company, but its original public debut remains associated with 2011.