LinkedIn 2016 - To Sell or Not To Sell?

In 2016, LinkedIn stock dropped sharply - by 43% to about a $15 billion market cap - when its revenue growth slowed to $3.65 bn, versus a forecasted $3.90 bn. It was growing at 37% year over year but forecast its growth rate to sharply decelerate. It ended that year with $3.7 billion in net revenue and an agreement to sell itself to Microsoft for $26 billion. At the time, executives, and Reid Hoffman, expected revenue growth to trail the industry. In 2021, LinkedIn surpassed $10 bn in revenues. That is an annual growth rate of 22% over 5 years. In 2016, I thought LinkedIn made a mistake to sell itself. I still think so today. If we use a conservative Price/Sales ratio of 5, LinkedIn could have a $50 billion Market Cap today. Microsoft was lucky it bought LinkedIn and not Yahoo.