LinkedIn CEO gives Apple iPad minis to 3,500 employees
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
nice !
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.
What he didn't give them Nexus 7's?
Really? Do you even expect an answer? pffft!
Obviously you are too narrow minded to understand.
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.
iCloud Business?
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.
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!
/s
Or the Surface which I hear is great for business professionals and has no compromises.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AjbDtc826
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.
"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."
But the neon pink / neon cyan keyboard just makes people wanna dance with their Surface. Click in.
He wants to show his employees that he cares. And that he's not cheap.