LinkedIn 2014 Annual Report Download - page 38

retaining our best talent. Competition for these resources, particularly for engineers, is intense, and
competition for the facilities to house our employees is also intense, specifically in the San Francisco
Bay Area, where our headquarters is located. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and
equity for new employees and we may never realize returns on these investments, and we also are
investing heavily in our facilities. If we are not able to effectively increase and retain our talent, our
ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely impacted, and our business will be harmed.
We believe that our culture has the potential to be a key contributor to our success. In 2014, we
increased the size of our workforce by more than 37% as compared to 2013, and we expect to
continue to hire aggressively as we expand. If we do not continue to develop our corporate culture as
we grow and evolve, including maintaining our culture of transparency with our employees, it could
harm our ability to foster the innovation, creativity and teamwork we believe we need to support our
growth. In addition, we completed our initial public offering in May 2011. As a result, employees who
have been with us since that time (or prior to May 2011) have been able to and may continue to
realize substantial financial gains in connection with the sales of their shares from the exercise of their
vested options, which could result in a loss of employees. There will likely be disparities of wealth
between those of our employees whom we hired prior to our initial public offering in May 2011 and
those who joined us after we became a public company, which could adversely impact relations among
employees and our culture in general.
The effectiveness of our Marketing Solutions depends in part on our relationships with
advertising serving technology companies.
We rely, in part, on advertising serving technology companies to deliver our Marketing Solutions
product. Our agreements with these companies may not be extended or renewed after their respective
expirations, or we may not be able to extend or renew our agreements on terms and conditions
favorable to us. If these agreements are terminated, we may not be able to enter into agreements with
alternative companies on acceptable terms or on a timely basis or both, which could negatively impact
revenue from our Marketing Solutions.
Enterprises or professional organizations, including governmental agencies, may restrict access
to our services, which could lead to the loss or slowing of growth in our member base or the
level of member engagement.
Our solutions depend on the ability of our members to access the Internet and our services.
Enterprises or professional organizations, including governmental agencies, could block or restrict
access to our online services, website or the Internet generally for a number of reasons such as
security or confidentiality concerns or regulatory reasons, or they may adopt policies that prohibit listing
the employers’ names on the employees’ LinkedIn profiles in order to minimize the risk that employees
will be contacted and hired by other employers.
In some cases, certain governments may seek to restrict the Internet or our service providers’
websites, services and solutions and the performance of our websites, services and solutions could be
suspended, blocked (in whole or part) or otherwise adversely impacted in these jurisdictions. For
example, the government of the People’s Republic of China has blocked access to many social
networking and other sites (including ours for a brief period), and certain self-regulatory organizations
have policies that could result in access to our content, services or features being blocked. Any
restrictions on the use of our services by our members and users could lead to the loss or slowing of
growth in our member base or the level of member engagement.
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