Grifols, the life science and pharmaceutical giant with a big presence in RTP after its acquisition of Talecris last year, reported a 46 percent over-year increase in sales to nearly $2 billion.

Profits jumped even higher, surging to $336.9 million, up some 500 percent, Reuters reported Thursday.

The company cited its acquisition of Talecris as a key driver.

In other news:

  • LinkedIn Shares Surge

LinkedIn Corp., the biggest online professional-networking service, surged to a record high after analysts from Evercore Partners Inc. and Wunderlich Securites Inc. released bullish reports on the company’s growth prospects.

The shares climbed 6.8 percent to a record $168.55 at the close in New York Wednesday. Evercore’s Ken Sena raised his price estimate to $200 from $160 and wrote in a research report today that LinkedIn could reach $280 within five years. Blake Harper at Wunderlich initiated coverage with a buy rating and a $195 target price.

LinkedIn has more than tripled since its initial public offering in May 2011, outperforming Internet companies like Facebook Inc., Groupon Inc. and Zynga Inc., which are all trading below their IPO price. While LinkedIn has characteristics of a consumer Web company — offering a free service and selling ads — it also has an expanding paid subscription business for corporate customers and premium users.

“The company’s Recruiter product and broader Talent Solutions platform have become extremely valuable for recruiters,” Harper wrote in a report today. “We view LinkedIn with a very large competitive moat around its platform given strong network effects, a highly visible revenue stream and the ability to rapidly innovate with new products.”

  • Groupon Shares Slump After Revenue Forecast Misses Estimates

Groupon Inc. slumped the most in more than three months Thursday after forecasting sales that missed estimates, underscoring the challenge facing Andrew Mason, whose board has already considered replacing him as chief executive officer.

The shares retreated 26 percent to $4.43 in early trading in New York, and earlier touched $4.24 for the biggest intraday decline since November. Groupon yesterday said first-quarter revenue will be $560 million to $610 million. Analysts on average had predicted $647.7 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

  • Google to Appear Before EU Data Watchdogs Over Privacy Concerns 

Google Inc. will have to appear before a group of European Union data-privacy watchdogs as part of a probe that may lead to “repressive action” after it failed to fix flaws in its privacy policy.

EU data-protection regulators will call Google to appear before them in the coming weeks as they put in place a working group to coordinate “repressive action, which should start before the summer,” France’s privacy authority, the National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties, said in a statement on its website.

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party wrote to Google Chief Executive Officer Larry Page in October, urging the Mountain View, California-based company to modify its practices, saying it “empowers itself to collect vast amounts of personal data about Internet users” without demonstrating that this “collection was proportionate.”

Google, operator of the world’s largest search engine, faces privacy investigations by authorities around the world as it debuts new services and steps up competition with Facebook Inc. for users and advertisers. Google last year changed its system to create a uniform set of policies for more than 60 products, unleashing criticism from regulators and consumer advocates concerned it isn’t protecting data it collects.

(Bloomberg contributed to this report.)