An Activist Investor at LinkedIn? Not So Fast.

LinkedIn’s stock price, which took a massive tumble following its latest earnings report in April, is rebounding quite nicely this week amid rumors that an activist investor has eyes on the company.

Some reports suggest well-known activist Carl Icahn may make a run at LinkedIn; the stock is up over 9 percent this week as a result.

But there are a few things to note about LinkedIn’s current setup that may impact whether or not an activist truly makes a play. The first is that LinkedIn’s stock isn’t cheap. Unlike Twitter, whose recent struggles have seen the stock dip to around $37 — well below its closing price on its first day of trading 18 months ago — LinkedIn is still pretty expensive at more than $213 a pop.

Perhaps more importantly is LinkedIn’s stock structure, which divides company shares into two classes. Its Class B stock, which was awarded to pre-IPO stockholders, has ten times the voting power of the Class A stock an activist investor would need to buy.

It’s a common strategy used by other public companies like Facebook and Google to ensure that outsiders like Carl Icahn can’t come in and gain control of a company’s board. In fact, in LinkedIn’s case, founder Reid Hoffman has more than 54 percent of the voting power at the company. So any activist investor will have to go through him.

None of this means an activist couldn’t buy a lot of stock to make a public stink and stir things up. The rumors alone helped buoy LinkedIn’s stock, so there are still plenty of ways to influence Wall Street. But actually making a change internally at LinkedIn? That doesn’t look as easy.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via