The whole point behind the LinkedIn IPO was not to expand the company, it was about making a few people running this website (I’m saying website because I don’t think we should even consider it a business) rich by cashing in.

How many investors were able to buy LNKD at $45? Just a few, these “few” people happen to be executives in LNKD.

Now there’s nothing wrong with making a quick buck because you went public, but let’s examine some of the trades:

Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn’s director) bought at 115,535 shares at $0 (I assume they were just given to him) and sold immediately, the minute LNKD became public. The selling price was $41.85. The total money made is: $4,835,139.75. Weiner Jeffrey, the CEO, did exactly the same trade. We all know that LNKD went to $122 the same day of trade so they basically sold at 1/3 of the price.

What does that tell us? It tells us clearly that LinkedIn’s executives believe that the stock is overpriced even at $41.85. They didn’t wait until the first day ended, they sold their shares first thing in the morning. It probably came as a surprise to them when the stock went up, 3 times their selling price. Both could have made $14.5 million from that morning trade, but they were satisfied with the $4.83 million (good, they’re not greedy).

As an investor myself, I wouldn’t touch this stock, in fact, LNKD is one of the very few stocks that I would recommend shorting. It is way overvalued from its company’s perspectives. LNKD in my opinion, is worth at $1 billion, which means that LNKD’s price should be $7.

I feel really sorry for those who got suckered into buying the stock above the $100 level. Wait until we see June’s insider trades, I bet you they’re all going to be “SELL”, and this is when LNKD will collapse.

This IPO, in my opinion, is one big scam. LinkedIn doesn’t need the money as a company, they make money from ads and from overpriced subscriptions that very few buy.