Groupon Inc., the largest coupon website, is seriously considering an initial public offering later this year and is meeting with securities firms interested in handling the sale, said two people familiar with the matter.
The company may hold an IPO as soon as mid-year, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. While Groupon is choosing from as many as six banks, it hasn’t retained one yet, one of the people said. The offering may value the company at $15 billion, one person said.
The IPO talks come days after Groupon announced a $950 million round of funding. The financing, said to value the company at $4.75 billion, attracted venture firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The public offering would add to a war chest the startup could use to expand internationally.
Webwork
2:56 pm on Jan 16, 2011 (gmt 0)
There's certain "1 trick pony" stocks I wouldn't buy.
DemandMedia is one: vomit "content" (I now hat that word) and monetize with Adsense. Great future in that . . . for those who can cash out by selling the garbage factory to the public.
Groupon is another. I'm waiting for Google to start pushing a real-time coupon search and/or marry a coupon feed to Google alerts/Gmail. Bye-bye Groupon, or at least seriously wounded. Besides, can anyone really corner the market on coupons?
Sure. Lemme try. ;P
Webwork
3:05 pm on Jan 21, 2011 (gmt 0)
Ta-da!
Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you . . drum roll please . . Google Offers![searchengineland.com ]
