In the late 1990′s internet based companies exploded onto the scene.  Geocities was bought by Yahoo! for $3.57Billion.  Think Tools AG was once evaluated at 2.5 billion. Freeinternet.com was once the fifth largets ISP in the country.  Infospace once reached a share price of $1,305 a share before seeing the stock price stumble to $22.

At one time or another all of these were major players on the internet. Infospace is the only one that is still in business.

It’s easy for the stock price of an internet based company to soar.  Expenses for websites are low, they can reach hyper growth at an insane rate of speed, and they can certainly become a gold mine if properly monetized.  When I think of a well monetized site I think of Google, Ebay, and Amazon.  It’s easy to see how these sites make money…they all sell very visible products.The same can’t be said for LinkedIn.  According to Brian Frank, Sr. Director of LinkedIn Sales Operations, LinkedIn sales ads and recruiting services.

On Thursday May 19, 2011 LinkedIn went public.  The stock started at $45, peaked at $109, and settled at $94.25.  According to Reuters.com LinkedIn was worth more than Harley Davidson by the end of the day.  All of this for a company that does not expect to be profitable in 2011.  Is something fishy going on here?

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