Pre-tax profits at the main Irish arm of jobs and professional networking social media platform LinkedIn last year increased by 42% to $176.35m (€176.55m)
LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company recorded the jump in pre-tax profits as revenues surged by $1.38 billion, or 42.5%, from $3.24 billion to $4.62 billion.
The firm last year paid out a dividend of €250m and in a note, the accounts state that subsequent to year end, the company intends to return capital of $5.6 billion to its immediate parent firm, Microsoft Ireland Research.
The directors state that revenues last year increased by $1.38 billion "due to increases across all lines of business".
Last month, LinkedIn Ireland confirmed to RTÉ that it is scaling back plans to expand its office space at a new campus in Dublin.
The firm stated that the move is a consequence of more of its Irish based staff working from home more often, which means it does not need as big an office footprint.
Commercial real estate developer IPUT is currently developing 600,000 sq ft of new office space at Wilton Park and the firm has now decided not to occupy Two and Three Wilton and will only use One Wilton, as well as Four Wilton when the project is completed around 2025.
The Irish based business of LinkedIn manages the company's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The revenues generated by the Irish based business accounted for 45% of LinkedIn's global revenues of $10.28 billion in 2021.
The new accounts show that the average numbers employed by LinkedIn last year declined marginally from 1,810 to 1,787 but staff costs increased from $288.27m to $294.2m.
The directors state however that there was "an increase in the actual number of employees during the latter half of the financial year supporting the company’s growth in activities during the year".
The business last year recorded post tax profits of $155.28m after paying corporation tax of €21m.
The directors state that the number of members last year increased by 70 million to 810 million across 200 countries in 26 languages.
"This was achieved through continued investment on the LinkedIn platform and in marketing and advertising expenses," they state.
The company's cost of sales last year increased by 52% from $1.8 billion to $2.74 billion and administrative expenses increased by 26% from $1.35 billion to $1.7 billion while "other operating expenses" totalled $13.92m.
The firm last year recorded an operating profit of $161.88m and profits were boosted by $13.79m received in shares from group subsidiaries.
At the end of December last, the business had shareholder funds of $6.18 billion with the bulk of funds made up of $4.19 billion from a share premium account.
The firm's cash funds last year increased from $7m to $8.9m.
The company has subsidiaries based in 17 countries – Britain, Canada, India, France, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Germany, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden, Brazil, Austria, Malaysia and Mexico.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
