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This has been the biggest since Google. LinkedIn IPO was listed today and its price instantly skyrocketed, it increased by 96%.  Starting at $45 it exploded to $88 within a few hours.

But all this has started raising concerns, is this is the start of a new tech bubble ??

At 12:32 pm EDT, LinkedIn shares are up 141% to $108

As of 12:02 pm EDT, LinkedIn shares are up 127% to $102.40, taking a slight dip from a peak at $115 at 11:50 am.

LinkedIn has exploded out of the gate and as of 10:53 am EDT, its share price is up 96% to over $88, after starting off the morning at $45, for an implied market cap of some $8 billion. LinkedIn stock didn’t even begin trading until more than half an hour after the NYSE opened as officials scrambled to match supply with demand.

It’s little wonder why: LinkedIn is the first major U.S.-based social network to go public, and the ballooning demand for LinkedIn stock is spelling out huge possibilities for the long-dreamed-of IPOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Groupon. If the report from SecondMarket, an online marketplace for alternative investments, is any indication, those IPOs are sure to explode with a fiery vengeance. Of the top ten most watched companies on SecondMarket, social media dominates the top five—starting with (you guessed it) Facebook. Twitter comes in at number two, while Groupon comes in third, LinkedIn fourth, and Zynga fifth.

As of March 2011, LinkedIn had 102 million members, which was 12 million more than it had just three months earlier in December 2010. In year-over-year metrics, the base of registered members grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 76% between 2008 and 2010.

In addition to its growing member base, LinkedIn also reported growing revenues. In 2010, the company net revenue more than doubled to $243.1 million from $120.1 million in 2009. Even more surprising, net income rose sharply to $15.4 million from -$3.9 million in 2009.

All of this leads to some mouth-watering fantasies for the day Facebook goes public. With some 600 million members, Facebook has a user base six times larger than LinkedIn’s–not to mention a valuation some 7.5 times higher than LinkedIn’s current $8 billion.

And then there’s Twitter, which has some 300 million registered users–which is triple that of LinkedIn–with some 460,000 new accounts being added each week. And of course, there was Twitter’s recent speculated (and highly controversial) valuation of some $7-$10 billion (even though its yearly revenue is only $100 million–fifty times less than a $7 billion valuation).

Or one can look at Groupon, which is rumored to be considering an IPO this year at a $20 billion valuation. As of March 2011, Groupon had some 70 million subscribers, which is obviously 32 million less than LinkedIn, but Groupon’s growth has been a force to reckon with. The company is no longer sharing its metrics, but my guess is that Groupon is up to 90 million subscribers today.

So what does all of this mean? Of course there’s the ominous “tech bubble” talk, which LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner brushed off when a CNBC reporter brought it up this morning. ”At the end of the day, it’s not about the share price — it’s about our continuing to execute,” he said.

Earlier this week, LinkedIn surprised many by raising its IPO share price from between $32 and $35 to between $42 and $45. But the outlook appeared somewhat dim given the recent flop of Renren (RENN), which debuted on Wednesday, May 4, at $19.50, and by the end of the day, it was down $18.01. As of 10:48 EDT today—just two weeks after debuting on the market—Renren is down to $13.92. Although it’s worth noting that that is a slight uptick from its share price yesterday, which closed at $12.84.

Twilight tops box office!

Vampires and werewolves ruled at the box office this Fourth of July weekend, with Summit Entertainment’s third installment of “The Twilight Saga” taking in $161.7 million since opening Wednesday.

That’s one of the biggest five-day debuts in Hollywood history, previously surpassed by just a handful of films including “The Dark Knight” and last summer’s sequel to “Transformers.”

After Monday, “Eclipse” is expected to gross around $181 million for the six-day holiday total.

The teen vampire franchise has pulled in major profits for its studio, Summit. A small independent studio in Hollywood, Summit spent just $68 million making “Eclipse,” far less than what many rival studios spend on summer blockbusters, which can cost as much as $150 million or $200 million.

“Eclipse” also helped boost the summer box office, which has trailed behind last year’s record-shattering revenue after a series of movies opened tepidly or flopped at the box office. Still, even with “Eclipse’s” performance, attendance continues to be down nearly 7% compared with last summer and revenue stands slightly lower, too.

Paramount Pictures’ “The Last Airbender,” a 3-D live-action adaptation based on a popular Nickelodeon cartoon, took the second spot at the box office this weekend, grossing $53.2 million since opening Thursday.

That figure stands in line with expectations after the film received poor reviews, but the movie has a long way to go before Paramount can recoup the roughly $150 million it spent on the movie, which the studio also paid to convert into 3-D earlier this year.

The film is, however, estimated to take in more than $70 million after Monday, significantly upping its total.

Source : WSJ.com.

There are some very interesting numbers in Apple’s third-quarter press release. Apple has also disclosed more numbers in its conference call which is still in progress. Some highlights:

3.05 million Macs sold this quarter, up 17 percent from a year ago. The overall PC market is expected to grow just 2 percent in the third quarter. That means Apple is taking market share from Windows still. But average selling prices per Mac are down. Sales outside the U.S. were stronger than sales inside the U.S.

10.2 million iPods sold this quarter, down 8 percent from 11 million a year ago. The iPod Touch sales were up 100 percent year-over-year.

7.4 million iPhones sold in the quarter, up 7 percent from a year ago. That’s a new record. iPhone sell through in the quarter was up 38 percent over a year ago.

$9.87 billion in third quarter revenues, up 25 percent ; analysts expected $9.2 billion.

$1.82 a share in earnings per share, up 47 percent; analysts expected $1.42 a share.

273 Apple stores now open, up 15. Apple is spending $400 million a year on stores. It remodeled 72 of them and opened 26 new stores in the quarter. That means some Apple stores closed in the quarter.

45.9 million visitors to Apple stores in the quarter, up from 42.7 million a year ago. Average revenue per store is $7.1 million per quarter, down from $7.6 million a year ago.

Apple has $23.4 billion in cash and short-term investments. With long-term investments included, Apple has $34 billion in current assets, up from $31 billion last quarter.

Expected fourth quarter revenue: $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion Earnings per share in fourth quarter are expected to be $1.70 a share to $1.78 a share.

2.4 million iPhones are in the inventory channel, up 500,000 from a quarter before.

China and Korea are expected to roll iPhones out in fourth quarter. Canada and UK are expected to add a second iPhone carrier.

this post credit goes to   venturebeat.com

The Australian government have proposed a budget of $16m to stop the growing mess of camel in their continent.

The plan proposed by the government is to kill the camel either from Helicopter or through foot using guns. Now this is not at all welcomed by the Animal Welfare Community who are in War path with the government.

What Camel got to do with Australia eh. Well, Australia in their mid 90′s imported Camels in order to make the desert travelling easy in their continent.

The camel though have grown excess in population and are about 1 million now. That is, for every 20 Australians there is atleast 1 camel. If the situation continues the population of camel will double in the current years leaving the government in very serious situation.

Considering every thing in hold, the Australian government finally decided to cull some camels. But this is not welcomed by Animal Welfare Community.

Instead, the community have proposed an alternate plan stating, “Instead of killing the camel, birth control pills or making the camel infertile options should be considered”.

There is no word yet from the Australian government on this issue.

The billionaire Bill Gates released a Jar of mosquitoes in a California high tech conference. To emphasize a point on the Malaria Prevention, the Microsoft co-founder opened a jar of mosquitoes on stage and let the swarm mingle with audience members. Bill Gates said that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent more than $1.4 Billion to fight malaria.

Malaria is preventable and treatable disease that kills more than 1 million people every year. Gates also said that fighting the disease must be a higher priority, noting there’s more money spent on baldness drugs than fighting malaria.

Bill Gates after the release of the mosquitoes said, “There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience.”. He assured the audience that none of the bugs carry malaria.