Groupon advancing towards a $15B IPO?

April 14, 2011 5:59 PM
Anthony Ha
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Group-buying titan Groupon has taken further steps towards an initial public offering by selecting Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to underwrite the offering, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal citing “people familiar with the matter.”

It’s been pretty clear for the past few months that an IPO is in Groupon’s sights, especially after the company walked away from a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google last year then raised a whopping $950 million in funding.

Bloomberg reported last month that Groupon was planning a $25 billion IPO this year. Now the Journal says that the IPO is expected to value the company between $15 and $20 billion. A number of consumer Internet companies, such as LinkedIn, have started filing for their IPOs this year. As reported, Groupon’s IPO would dwarf the offerings announced so far, though Facebook is likely to follow with an even larger IPO in the next couple of years.

I’ve emailed Groupon for comment and will update here if I hear from them.

Update: A Groupon spokesperson declined to comment (which is pretty standard for IPO-related news).

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  • http://twitter.com/R3Evolution Ales Nohel

    Either that or the bubble goes first

  • http://www.groupon-off.com Carl Ruzycki

    $15 Billion is too high a valuation for a flawed business plan. Success comes from a win-win relationship especially when the merchant will determine the success failure. No merchants = No groupons = No Groupon. The Groupon business model is too one sided to Groupon's pockets. The merchant is basically subsidizing groupons and taking a hit in the process. LivingSocial understands the importance of the win-win relationship and will surpass Groupon. Win-win is key in social marketing.

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