Business-Focused Social Network XING Announces Dividend Of €0.56 Per Share; Total Payout Around €3 Million

XING, a social network for business professionals, is the latest to hop on the dividend train. The company announced this morning that, following a meeting of the XING AG Executive Board, the company has approved its first-ever payment of a dividend. XING shareholders are now entitled to receive a dividend of €0.56 per share on June 15, 2012, which equates to a total dividend payment of about €3 million.

The proposal was first submitted to the Supervisory Board at a meeting held on February 29th, 2012, which fell under XING’s 2011 fiscal year. Today the proposal was approved, allowing the dividend to be paid out to shareholders.

Although XING’s name is overshadowed by Facebook and business-focused LinkedIn here in the U.S., the social network boats over 12 million members worldwide who use it to network for job-related purposes. However, XING hasn’t grown by much over the past couple of years. In September 2010, for example, the company announced it had hit 10 million members, to give you an idea. That said, XING still has a foothold in various places throughout Europe, especially German-speaking countries, given its German roots.

Members on XING can search for jobs, assignments, for their colleagues and co-workers, partners, and can collaborate on business ideas. There are also 50,000 groups on XING dedicated to various industries and niches.

XING AG, founded in Hamburg, Germany in 2003 currently operates XING. It has publicly listed since 2006, and has been listed on the TecDAX since September 2011. In December 2010, XING acquired amiando AG, a Munich-based provider of online event management and ticketing. The deal, for €10.3 million, was aimed at boosting XING’s events platform.

Today, the company is the latest to join a growing crowd of dividend payers in the tech industry, following Apple, Dell and HP, most notably.