LinkedIn Stocks Surge; Fraudulent Intuit Email Circulates

Every week, Mountain View makes news with technology developments, discoveries and sometimes controversies.

Today, Mountain View Patch brings you the first of a weekly “Bits and Bytes” column where we’ll relay the past week’s news highlights from our backyard giants, start-ups and small businesses alike.

stock shot up 17 percent on Friday, its biggest one-day spike since it made its IPO in May, prompted by its Q4 earnings announcement on Thursday. The company's revenue more than doubled to $168 million this year. According to analysts the success may be in part to a growing group of dedicated users who continuously sign in with hopes of boosting their own personal success.

plans to move forward with the privacy changes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requested of them, to the chagrin of the Electronic Privacy Center (EPIC). EPIC filed a lawsuit against the FTC, in hopes the move would force it to enjoin Google from implementing these changes. The European Union has already asked Google to hold off, but Google declined and stated such a delay would generate "significant confusion."

A fraudulant email is circulating that states "tax information needed within 30 days." The Mountain View-based company advises recipients to delete the email and alert Intuit, the maker of TurboTax software, at spoof.intuit.com.

Cloud-based video conferencing services company Blue Jeans Network will be honored with an "Entrepreneurial Company of the Year" award from Frost & Sullivan. Launched in June 2011, the company specializes in affordable, first-time business meetings, and now has a foothold in over 2,000 countries in 200 cities around the world.

MAP Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in developing and commercializing new therapies for underserved patients in neurology, wants its mission heard. It will make two presentations at investor conferences in the coming weeks: one on Feb. 16 at 11:30 EST at the Leerink Swann 2012 Global Healthcare Conference and another at 8 a.m. Feb. 28 EST at the 2012 Citi Global Healthcare Conference.