Wunderlich Comments on LinkedIn Bizo acquisition

Tuesday evening after the market close LinkedIn

announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bizo, a firm with the goal of enabling better marketing to professional audience, for $175 million in a 90/10 cash and stock deal. Today in a flash note Wunderlich analyst, Blake Harper said through the integration of Bizo's business-to-business solutions, LinkedIn should be able to create more targeted and relevant ads for its members. Harper said he views the acquisition price "favorably", noting it represents a 4.4 x P/S multiple on fiscal 2013 revenue and a 2.2 x P/S multiple on estimated fiscal 2014 revenue, which assumes a continued 100 percent year-over-year growth rate. Looking forward, Harper says Bizo could add as much as $100 million in direct revenues in fiscal 2015. Speaking on both this and the company's recent acquisition of Newsle, Harper wrote, "We view both acquisitions as a way to accelerate and complement LinkedIn's efforts to buiil out a marketing API solution for publishers and agencies." He added, "We expect additional upside in our fiscal year 2014 and fiscal year 2015 estimates and recommend buying the shares here."