LinkedIn's Irish unit paid a dividend of $250m to its parent last year after recording a profit on ordinary activities after taxation of $155.3m in 2021, an improvement of 50% or close to $52m year-on-year.

Newly filed accounts by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, the Microsoft-owned professional social network's main Irish subsidiary, show the company recorded turnover of $4.6bn last year, up 42.5% or $1.4bn from $3.2bn in 2020.

Cost of sales, meanwhile jumped from $1.8bn to $2.7bn year-on-year and, similarly, administrative expenses rose from under $1.4bn to $1.7bn while other operating expenses fell slightly to $13.9bn.

The company paid some $21m in taxes on $176.4m in profit before tax, including $18.7m in corporation tax, and LinkedIn said it had over 810m members at the end of the year.

Net assets fell from just over $6.3bn in 2020 to under $6.2bn in 2021, and LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company said in a note that it intends to pay $5.6bn to its immediate parent company, Microsoft Ireland Research.

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The $6.2bn in shareholder funds was primarily made up of $4.2bn from a share premium account while the firms cash funds rose from $7m to $8.9m.

The company employed some 1,787 people last year between administration and support (211) and sales, marketing and distribution (1,576), down from an average of 1,810 in 2020. Payroll, however, rose year-on-year, from $288.3m to $294.2m.

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