Business social network LinkedIn just posted its Q1 2013 earnings, and while the results trumped expectations, investors seem a bit spooked because it issued weak guidance.

LinkedIn’s shares are down more than 10 percent in after-hours trading. The price is sitting at about $179.70 as of this report.

Analysts expected the company to post earnings per share of $0.31 on revenue of $318 million. LinkedIn trumped that with Q1 revenue of $324.7 million, an increase of 72 percent versus the the first quarter of 2012. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.45.

Additionally, analysts thought that revenue guidance would come in at about $359 million for the next quarter, but the company expects less with a number between $342 million and $347 million. The company said:

Q2 2013 Guidance: Revenue is expected to range between $342 million and $347 million. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between $77 million and $79 million. The company expects depreciation and amortization to be between $30 million and $32 million, and stock-based compensation to be between $49 million and $51 million.

Full Year 2013 Guidance: Revenue is revised upward by $20 million to range between $1.430 billion and $1.460 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is revised upward by $15 million to range between $330 million and $345 million. The company expects depreciation and amortization to be between $130 million and $135 million, and stock-based compensation to be between $190 million and $195 million.

Photo via Jolie O’Dell/VentureBeat

Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Salesforce.com announced this afternoon that it will raise $1 billion in convertible debt with the potential for $150 million more.

The cloud computing giant will float convertible bonds due in 2018. Since the news was released, shares are down 35 cents at $185.59.

We reached out to multiple representatives from the company, who would not offer further comment.

The company will use a portion of the proceeds for strategic acquisitions. Salesforce is no stranger to M&A: In the past two years, its corporate development team has picked up over half a dozen small companies.

In a statement, the company revealed the funds will be used for “possible acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary businesses, services or technologies, working capital and capital expenditures.”

The company told ZDnet that it will take steps to minimize dilution once the convertible bonds convert to shares.

Salesforce is currently worth $27 billion and reached its 2012 goal to complete $3 billion in sales. In its most recent earnings report, it witnessed an improvement in revenues from all its business segments.

Marc Benioff photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Real estate listings site Trulia announced this morning that it is looking to raise $150 million so it can move quickly on potential acquisitions.

The newly public company filed an amendment to its Form S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which will partially release some shares that were locked up. Trulia and some of its stockholders are proposing to sell an aggregate of 5.25 million shares in a primary and secondary offering.

Trulia revealed that it will offer 3.5 million in shares, and stockholders are offering 1.75 million. The last reported sale price of Trulia stock as of Friday was $30.44 per share price on the New York Stock Exchange. The company notes that the follow-on offering altogether could raise as much as $164 million.

“The capital is to really to strengthen the cash reserves for new product lines and acquisitions,” said Ken Shuman, the company’s vice president of communications in an interview. He confirmed that Trulia is not looking into any mergers opportunities.

The company has not made an acquisition since the buy-up of Movity in December 2010, which Shuman claims is a deliberate choice as “most acquisitions fail and tend to be a distraction for senior management.”

Last year, Trulia’s corporate development team evaluated dozens of startups but didn’t move forward. “There has to be a really compelling reason to acquire as we’re often better off building,” he explained.

But with the company filing for its IPO last year, it maybe reevaluating its “build first” mentality. Shuman said the company is considering tools and services for real estate agents, online rentals (“a huge, emerging business”), mortgages-focused startups, and small companies that would support “international expansion.”

Currently, Trulia has almost 5 million homes listed on its site. Potential buyers can easily search, visualize, and track properties, as well as access information about nearby schools and crime.

With chief competitor Zillow making several buy-ups in 2012 (the company spent close to $60 million to acquire Hotpads and RentJuice), expect to see some activity in the real estate sector.

Trulia is hiring in its marketing and engineering teams to support the expansion. Last week, the company’s data science team rolled out a “suggests” feature to introduce Netflix-style recommendations to its website and mobile apps.

The company admits in the filing that it has a “history of losses” and may not reach profitability anytime soon. Major risks for investors include a limited operating history, the possibility that real estate professionals won’t continue to subscribe, that it won’t be able to maintain accurate real estate information.

Top image // Shutterstock

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Mark Zuckerberg is surely smiling today. Facebook’s shares have shot up about 10 percent in early-hours trading, with the lockup period for nearly 800 million FB shares expiring today.

Facebook’s stock price has seen some serious ups and downs since its IPO debut back in May. The stock debuted on the Nasdaq exchange at $38 per share but quickly fell below that just a few days after opening.

The 800 million Facebook shares that are held by employees not named Mark Zuckerberg are now eligible for sale on the open market. While you’d think that could drive the price down, the market clearly anticipated the selling of these shares. It likely has bounced because this was the last big lockup expiration, which should mean no more crazy price drops due to many employees selling at once.

As of this writing, the stock is trading at $21.95, up 10.52 percent over its close yesterday of $19.86.

Mark Zuckerberg photo via TC/Flickr

What do Japan’s earthquakes and tsunami, the royal wedding, and the passing of Steve Jobs have in common? They were all hugely popular topics on StumbleUpon in 2011. The link discovery website had quite a year — in October it reached 20 million users, December brought a complete site redesign, and it now averages 1.2 billion “stumbles” per month.

In the above infographic, you can see how much the popular events of 2011 influenced StumbleUpon’s activity. During the Super Bowl, there were 41 mobile stumbles per second. And after Steve Jobs passed away in October, StumbleUpon recorded a 199,500 percent increase for searches of “Steve Jobs.”

StumbleUpon rounded up the most popular, inspiring and adorable links from the approximately 14 billion stumbles the site saw this year. The resulting Best of StumbleUpon 2011 post is a three-page list that includes the top stumbles for men, women and mobile users. Below is sampling of the stumbles that made the list.

Most inspiring

In the category of most inspiring, A dog’s seeing-eye dog is the winner with one million views. It’s a post about a blind Great Dane, and another Great Dane companion that has been acting as her seeing-eye dog for the past five years. Inspiring and adorable.

Most popular on tablets

Expectations vs. Reality is a round up of 16 pictures that show how things really don’t always go as planned. The single-column all-images post was a natural for tablets. It had more than two million views on StumbleUpon — a rare case when reality probably topped expectations.

Most stumbled video

Out of all the videos shared this year, Super Sprayer scored the most stumbles. At first the video doesn’t look like much; just an artist spray painting a sheet of paper. But as he sprays and smudges the paint, a stunning space scene with a planet and stars emerge. It may not be as viral as Rebecca Black’s Friday Video, but the painting definitely required more talent.

Most delicious

Chocolate cupcakes with flaming strawberries — need I say more? This unique recipe of chocolate cupcakes topped with flaming, alcohol-filled strawberries became the most delicious stumble of 2011 with one million views.

And lastly, most shared

Draw a Stickman is a simple game; you draw a stickman and watch what happens to it, adding input here and there. How did it get so many shares? Likely because it’s a fun way to kill a few minutes and has a nice message at the end.

SecondMarket is reportedly now worth $200 million.

The company is called SecondMarket, because it sells shares on the so-called “second market.” Individuals including founders, early employees, or investors in a private company own shares on the “first market” because they get the shares first. They then sell the shares on the secondary market.

The company has now raised a total of $34 million.

Notably, SecondMarket, itself a private company, just two months ago sold its own shares on the secondary market. In those transactions, the company valued itself at $160 million.

Aside from dealing in shares of private companies, SecondMarket also offers other illiquid assets, including auction-rate securities, bankruptcy claims, structured products, warrants and restricted stock, and whole loans.

The latest $15 million third round comes from the Social+Capital Partnership, a firm founded by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya. Facebook is the private company that has probably been the most highly sought after by investors, and so it’s less than coincidental that someone like Palihapitiya sees the value in such a business. The company said that Palihapitiya will join the SecondMarket board of directors.

At the same time, there are other people who think the prospects of players like SecondMarket are somewhat limited. Private companies remain private for a reason, and creating a market for the shares of such companies just really isn’t that big of a market, these critics say.

Still, the company isn’t small by any means. SecondMarket tells the WSJ that it has been profitable for the past five years, and the WSJ cites sources saying the company’s revenue was $35 million in 2010. At the same time, the company faces plenty of competitors, from Sharespost to Liquidnet.

SecondMarket “has become the preeminent platform for private company shares enabling companies to meet their liquidity needs, help retain and reward talent, and provide start-ups with an opportunity to monetize and grow their businesses,” said Palihapitiya in a prepared statement. “SecondMarket is a compelling alternative to companies that are not ready to navigate the public markets.”

This is a hot year for tech startups going public, so Zillow likely wants to take advantage of the favorable financial climate. Both LinkedIn and Pandora went public in the past few months, while notable tech companies such as Zynga and Groupon have recently filed to go public.

Seattle-based Zillow launched in 2006 and now lists pricing related to more than 100 million homes in the U.S. The service also helps connect lenders, borrowers, and renters with its marketplace.

Zillow’s financials account for the the company’s somewhat small $378 million valuation for a tech startup. During the course of its three years, the company hasn’t made any profit. It incurred a loss of $12.8 million against $17.5 million in revenues in 2009 and a loss of $6.7 million against $30.5 million in revenues in 2010. In the first three months of 2011, the company lost $826,000, which at least indicates Zillow is on its way to generating income soon.

Have you used Zillow? Are you a fan of the service?