LinkedIn Corp sees its initial public offering being priced about 30 percent higher than previously expected, as investors clamor to get a bite of the social networking pie.

It now expects its IPO of 7.84 million shares to be priced between $42-$45 apiece, valuing the nine-year old company at a little over $4 billion.

Its earlier expectation was $32-$35 apiece.

Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and Zynga have stoked heavy interest from investors betting on social media only getting hotter. Their shares, traded in markets for private investors, are commanding multibillion-dollar valuations.

In early May, Renren Inc, one of China's biggest social networking companies, made its debut in the market and its shares rallied 29 percent.

LinkedIn is offering 4.83 million shares, and the rest will be sold by some of its stockholders.

Shares owned by co-founder and LinkedIn board Chairman Reid Hoffman, who is among those stockholders selling shares in the IPO, would represent about 21.7 percent of voting power after the offering.

Other big stakeholders offering shares include Goldman Sachs, McGraw-Hill Companies Inc and Bain Capital Venture Integral Investors LLC.

Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JPMorgan are among the bookrunners for the LinkedIn offering.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)

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