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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2012 version)

  LinkedIn Corporation, 2012

  David Yoffie and Liz Kind

  Since its inception in 2003, LinkedIn had become a leading Silicon Valley institution with a brand name that was recognizable throughout the U.S. and in many countries overseas. As of March 2012, LinkedIn was the world's largest professional network on the Internet with $522.2 million in revenue in 2011 and more than 150 million members in over 200 countries. Unlike other major social networking sites, LinkedIn focused exclusively on fostering connections within the professional market. As LinedIn's CEO thought about the future, he recognized the challenges in continuing to massively scale the company. At the same time, he focused on how LinkedIn could continue to use its vast amount of data to provide additional products and services for its members and customers.

  Keywords: social networking; media; technology; strategy; Growth Management; Internet; Corporate Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Brands and Branding; Service Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; California;

  Citation:

  Yoffie, David, and Liz Kind. "LinkedIn Corporation, 2012." Harvard Business School Case 713-420, March 2013. (Revised from original August 2012 version.)

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2011 version)

  Wal-Mart Update, 2011

  David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim

  In 2011, Wal-Mart was the world's largest company with $420 billion in sales and operations in 14 countries. Yet it found itself searching for the right growth strategy moving forward. U.S. same-store sales had declined for eight consecutive quarters and Wal-Mart was increasingly becoming dependent on international sales. Meanwhile, intense competition came from various players, ranging from general discounters to dollar stores to online retailers. What should Wal-Mart do as its traditional markets and core competencies no longer ensured the kind of growth that it had enjoyed for decades in the past?

  Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Global Range; Business Strategy; Retail Industry;

  Citation:

  Yoffie, David B., and Renee Kim. "Wal-Mart Update, 2011." Harvard Business School Case 711-546, March 2013. (Revised from original June 2011 version.)

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• Article | Journal of Economic Perspectives | Winter 2013

  The New Patent Intermediaries: Platforms, Defensive Aggregators and Super-Aggregators

  Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie

  The patent market consists mainly of privately negotiated, bilateral transactions, either sales or cross-licenses, between large companies. There is no eBay, Amazon, New York Stock Exchange, or Kelley's Blue Book equivalent for patents, and when buyers and sellers do manage to find each other, they usually negotiate under enormous uncertainty: prices of similar patents vary widely from transaction to transaction, and the terms of the transactions (including prices) are often secret and confidential. Inefficient and illiquid markets, such as the one for patents, generally create profit opportunities for intermediaries. We begin with an overview of the problems that arise in patent markets, and how traditional institutions like patent brokers, patent pools, and standard-setting organizations have sought to address them. During the last decade, a variety of novel patent intermediaries have emerged. We discuss how several online platforms have started services for buying and selling patents but have failed to gain meaningful traction. And new intermediaries that we call defensive patent aggregators and super-aggregators have become quite influential and controversial in the technology industries they touch. The goal of this paper is to shed light on the role and efficiency tradeoffs of these new patent intermediaries. Finally, we offer a provisional assessment of how the new patent intermediary institutions affect economic welfare.

  Keywords: intellectual property; patents; platforms; intermediaries; aggregator;

  Citation:

  Hagiu, Andrei, and David B. Yoffie. "The New Patent Intermediaries: Platforms, Defensive Aggregators and Super-Aggregators." Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 1 (Winter 2013): 45–66.

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