A Great Year for LinkedIn

So far, 2012 has been a great year for LinkedIn. While the stocks of other high profile newly public tech companies such as Facebook, Groupon and Zynga cratered, LinkedIn's stock has been on a tear for good parts of the year. Carried by solid financials and decent user growth, LinkedIn's stock is up around 70 percent since January.

The only flaw in LinkedIn's otherwise great track record was the leakage of user data in June, when hackers reportedly gained access to the passwords of 6.5 million users, because the data was not sufficiently protected. LinkedIn issued an apology and ensured users that no login data had been leaked alongside the passwords. Further damage was successfully averted and the issue could be put away as a minor hickup in a good year.