LinkedIn CEO gives Apple iPad minis to 3,500 employees

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Jeff Weiner, chief executive at professional networking site LinkedIn, handed out an iPad mini to each of his 3,500 employees on Wednesday in recognition of their contributions to the company.

Weiner iPad
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner addresses employees next to stacks of iPad minis. | Source: TechCrunch


Instead of going with the cheapest $329 16GB model, LinkedIn chose to step up to the $429 32GB version, costing the company some $1.5 million, reports Business Insider.

"We wanted to acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of all of our employees in 2012," a LinkedIn representative said in a prepared statement. "During today?s biweekly All Hands meeting, we surprised our employees with iPad Minis as a small gesture of the company?s gratitude for their contributions."

In its most recent quarter, LinkedIn raked in revenues of $303.6 million to represent 81 percent growth year-over-year, beating Wall Street expectations by $25 million.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member


    The Mini is great! I was forced to buy one yesterday, because I was suffering from iWS. For all the non-medical types out there, that stands for iPad Withdrawal Syndrome.image


     


    My girlfriend just went on a trip, and being the nice guy that I am, I let her take the iPad 3, which left me with no iPad at all. After one day of no iPad, I said screw it, and I just went down to the closest Apple store and picked up a Mini. I'm just too used to having an iPad around for certain tasks.


     


    I'm used to Retina on the iPad 3, but the iPad Mini isn't bad at all. Sure, you can notice that it's not Retina when using certain apps, but it's a pretty nice screen, and many things do look very good on it. Games are pretty decent on it too. I also like the fact that it's so light.

  • Reply 2 of 18


    nice !

  • Reply 3 of 18
    Why does LinkedIn need 3,500 employees?
  • Reply 4 of 18
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    It never ceases to amaze me how companies like Linkedin, which on first appearances, don't seem to have a huge revenue generating business model, yet have thousands of employees. Of course I never could see the marketability of Facebook either when it first started to become popular. Their ads seemed really lame, but somehow these free service companies make money, how, I don't understand. I don't think I have ever intentionally clicked on any website ad but apparently a lot of people do.

  • Reply 5 of 18
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member


    What he didn't give them Nexus 7's? image

  • Reply 6 of 18
    Lets assume that LinkedIn really has that many employees. What has that company done to deserve a treat like this anyway? They're a niche fad amongst professionals. There's nothing they offer that couldn't be outdone in a couple more years.
  • Reply 7 of 18


    Really? Do you even expect an answer? pffft!

  • Reply 8 of 18


    Obviously you are too narrow minded to understand.

  • Reply 9 of 18
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Jon Stewart on LinkedIn (can't find video): "I thought [LinkedIn] was an email inbox flooding service whose sole purpose in life was to remind me that a guy I went to high school with would like me to join LinkedIn so I can spam everyone I ever met."

    mstone wrote: »
    It never ceases to amaze me how companies like Linkedin, which on first appearances, don't seem to have a huge revenue generating business model, yet have thousands of employees. Of course I never could see the marketability of Facebook either when it first started to become popular. Their ads seemed really lame, but somehow these free service companies make money, how, I don't understand. I don't think I have ever intentionally clicked on any website ad but apparently a lot of people do.

    I'm with you there. I've never been able to see* how those business models can work. Twitter only recently started including ads. I have absolutely no idea how their investors thought the company was able to going make them money. Twitter's revenue stream seems to even less capable than FB or LI's. Perhaps it's like Amazon where it's the idea of eventually making profits is more important to investors than a company actually being profitable.


    * Me saying I don't understand how they so profitable is not the same as saying they are not profitable or they don't exist.

    ajbdtc826 wrote: »
    Lets assume that LinkedIn really has that many employees. What has that company done to deserve a treat like this anyway? They're a niche fad amongst professionals. There's nothing they offer that couldn't be outdone in a couple more years.

    iCloud Business?
  • Reply 10 of 18
    Must be nice.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    otriotri Posts: 13member
    Oh ppl, LinkedIn has become the defacto hiring tool in our industry in Vancouver here. Everyone who's remotely in a profession related to mobile development is definitely on LinkedIn. If you're not, then you're missing out. The cross-visibility, recommendations, and easy back-filling of who has what skills is what LinkedIn does so well. It's a seriously indispensable tool for recruiting in a hot industry short on available developers.

    Seems they have a good quality team, hitting many platforms isn't easy. I guess this says iOS is going to be their best supported platform now.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    otriotri Posts: 13member


    In LinkedIn's case, it's not the visible ads that's making them the most money.  It's the professional recruiting tools that makes their bulk of cash.   Just look at their premium offerings.  Gets pricey fast!

  • Reply 13 of 18
    Why didn't LinkedIn get Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablets? Amazon claims their cheaper Kindle Fire tablets are just as good as anything Apple makes and the price is so much less. Why did LinkedIn just throw their money away on some over-priced Apple product. It's almost like someone buying a Porsche Carrera GT when they could get the same benefits from owning a less expensive Toyota Matrix.

    /s
  • Reply 14 of 18
    Why didn't LinkedIn get Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablets? Amazon claims their cheaper Kindle Fire tablets are just as good as anything Apple makes and the price is so much less. Why did LinkedIn just throw their money away on some over-priced Apple product. It's almost like someone buying a Porsche Carrera GT when they could get the same benefits from owning a less expensive Toyota Matrix.

    /s

    Or the Surface which I hear is great for business professionals and has no compromises.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AjbDtc826 View Post



    Lets assume that LinkedIn really has that many employees. What has that company done to deserve a treat like this anyway? 


    The company didn't get iPads.


    The CEO bought iPads for his employees because he thinks they are doing a bang-up job.


     


    In 1996, John Tu and David Sun of Kingston Technology (RAM makers) paid all 550 employees (including the janitors) , a $130,000 bonus each for the year because they made a LOT of money and couldn't have done it without the employees.

  • Reply 16 of 18
    Is this person feeling well today? Linkedin is not a "niche fad" but an incredibly useful tool to build and maintain a professional network. It is also a much more effective platform for job postings than Monster or Career Builder. Clearly, the 3500 employees are doing something right. Receiving an iPad Mini is a great way to say thank you and build employee loyalty and goodwill.


    "Lets assume that LinkedIn really has that many employees. What has that company done to deserve a treat like this anyway? They're a niche fad amongst professionals. There's nothing they offer that couldn't be outdone in a couple more years."
  • Reply 17 of 18
    solipsismx wrote: »
    Or the Surface which I hear is great for business professionals and has no compromises.

    But the neon pink / neon cyan keyboard just makes people wanna dance with their Surface. Click in.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    rogifan wrote: »
    What he didn't give them Nexus 7's? :wow:

    He wants to show his employees that he cares. And that he's not cheap.
Sign In or Register to comment.