After LinkedIn filed their IPO and doubled their stock value on the first day, another company is looking to join in on the fun. Groupon has filed a S-1 form with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to offer its own IPO worth approximately 750 million U.S. dollars, according to TechCrunch.
The IPO is underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse. According to the New York Post, the company will be traded under the symbol "GRPN". Groupon was founded in 2008. The company, for those who may not know, offers a daily deal for over 500 markets and 44 countries. This means that over 57,000 local merchants currently participate in the company"s program.
These deals include travel, restaurants, amusement parks, and other local attractions. The company is basing its valuation on several different factors including its $713 million in revenue for 2010. The company, however, did lose 456 million last year. The company has 83.1 million subscribers, and says that its revenue increased 22,000 percent since June 2010. They have sold over 28 million Groupons as of March 2011.
However, 750 million dollars is not as good as the $2.5 billion supposedly offered by Google. Maybe Groupon should have taken advantage of that deal instead. However, this will be interesting to watch as the company releases more information when the IPO is approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Maybe this is the start of a new 21st Century Internet bubble.