LinkedIn just announced that Michael Moritz, the Sequoia Capital partner whose past investments include Google and Yahoo, is joining the company’s board.
The immediate reason for the move is the departure of Mark Kvamme, who is leaving both Sequoia and the LinkedIn board to become the director of Ohio’s department of development. But there are larger ambitions suggested by the fact that Sequoia’s most famous partner is joining the board (back when Forbes was still ranking venture capitalists on its Midas List, Moritz was usually vying with fellow Google investor John Doerr for the top spot).
There has been speculation about LinkedIn going public for a while now. Reuters recently reported that the company plans to hold its IPO this year to get ahead of Facebook’s expected public offering in 2012. And Moritz certainly has experience serving on the board of companies that go public.
LinkedIn’s board also includes chief executive Jeff Weiner, founder Reid Hoffman, A. George “Skip” Battle, Leslie Kilgore, Stan Meresman, and David Sze.
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