LinkedIn announces initial public offering

The California-based startup filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) saying that it planned to raise money expand its operations.

"We believe we are transforming the way people work by connecting talent with opportunity at massive scale," LinkedIn said in the SEC filing.

"Our goal is to provide a global platform capable of mapping every professional's experience, skills and other relevant professional data to his or her professional graph, including connections with colleagues and business contacts."

The number of shares to be offered and the price range had not been determined, LinkedIn said.

LinkedIn described itself in the filing as the world's largest professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in more than 200 countries.

LinkedIn members cultivate and manage career or business networks in the online community.

The start-up made a net profit of $US10 million on net revenue of $US161 million in the first nine months of 2010, according to the LinkedIn filing with the SEC.