Recruiters help LinkedIn beat expectations Recruiters hunting for candidates online helped LinkedIn beat expectations in its third quarter as it tries to transform itself from a social network for professionals into a tool which it hopes will change the way people hire, market and sell. But its shares - which have more than doubled this year - fell about 3 per cent in after-hours trading after the company issued slightly weaker than expected guidance for the next three months. Unlike most advert-dependent social networks, LinkedIn generates more than half of its revenue from tools to help recruiters communicate with potential candidates. Revenue from "talent solutions" increased 62 per cent year on year, while premium subscriptions revenue rose 61 per cent. Jeff Weiner, chief executive, said the company wanted to become a map of the global economy by expanding into everything from tools for marketers to content publishing. "Ultimately, in the longer term, we want to map the global economy, digitally representing every economic opportunity, every skill required to obtain them, a profile for every company in the world, every higher education institution and every one of the three billion-plus people in the global workplace," Mr Weiner said. The company beat expectations in the third quarter with diluted earnings per share, on the pro forma basis by which Wall Street measures performance, of $0.39 compared with the $0.32 average analyst estimate. But on a GAAP basis, the company made a loss of three cents per share because of a high tax charge. It reported a net loss of $3.4m compared with net income of $2.3m in the same period last year. Revenues in the three months ending in September were also slightly higher than expected at $393m, compared with the consensus forecast of $385m. But the network issued a slightly lower than expected guidance for the fourth quarter. It forecast revenue of $415m-$420m and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $98m-$100m, compared with analyst expectations of $438m and $110m. LinkedIn also saw a fall in unique visitors and page views, two key metrics when measuring social networks" performance, in the third quarter. Unique visitors fell from 143m in the second quarter to 142m excluding mobile, according to data from ComScore. The company sold $1.3bn of stock during the quarter, in its second secondary offering since it listed two years ago, higher than the initial $1.2bn it had planned.