Groupon announces initial share price of $20 for tomorrow’s IPO

Groupon shares will be priced at $20 when the company begins trading publicly tomorrow on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol GRPN, according to AllThingsD, which would value the company at $13 billion.

The daily deals company’s share price came out today amid much speculation, and Kara Swisher reports the offering was 10 times oversubscribed, so the company is offering an additional 5 million shares, for a total of 35 million shares.

However, Groupon’s core … Continue Reading

Groupon’s growth plan: launching ‘Groupon Reserve’ and replacing its worst salespeople

Group deals startup Groupon is launching a new service called Groupon Reserve, the company announced today.

The service will focus exclusively on high-end deals from high-end merchants and may silence critics who complain that most of the deals from the company’s regular daily deals service aren’t good enough. The first deal is a $70 three-course tasting menu for two at New York restaurant Bice.

Select Groupon email list subscribers in New York received the following … Continue Reading

Groupon IPO roadshow begins with one tough question: Can the company turn a profit?

Groupon is taking its show on the road this week to pitch wary investors on its stock. Can the company prove it will be profitable in the long term even though it’s posting nothing but losses so far?

“If you look at the company’s prospectus, they say they expect to see losses for the foreseeable future,” said Dun & Bradstreet tech specialist Lee Simmons in a call with VentureBeat this morning.

At the end of … Continue Reading

Groupon will IPO in 2 weeks at an $11.4B valuation

Groupon is set to go public on November 4, 2011.

After months of hemming, hawing, adjusting statements and balking at the closing IPO window, the company will offer its shares for public trading. They will be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol GRPN.

Groupon hopes to set the share price between $16 and $18 and is attempting to raise around $621 million. This fundraising will leave the company valued at $11.4 billion, down from … Continue Reading

Groupon’s valuation takes a nosedive as the startup preps for IPO

After an avalanche of negative press and a general market downturn, Groupon is gearing up for its IPO at a valuation of less than $12 billion.

Previously, sources close to the deal said the valuation was between $15 to $20 billion.

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the $12 billion figure will be pitched to Groupon’s investors during its IPO roadshow.

Previously, we told you that the company’s roadshow, in which the company’s … Continue Reading

Mark Pincus, a potential multibillionaire, finally takes center stage at Zynga (video)

Mark Pincus, chief executive of Zynga, has been out of the public eye for months, mainly due to regulatory restrictions on what CEOs of companies filing for initial public offerings can say in public. But yesterday, he finally got on stage for Zynga’s big games rollout.

Clearly, Pincus was careful to avoid saying anything that would derail the social game company’s IPO (if that IPO happens, he could become a multibillionaire). So his appearance  had … Continue Reading

Shaky U.S. markets have been sending IPOs overseas

In the past several months, more and more venture-backed companies have shied away from tumultuous U.S. market activity and have sought entry into in European and Asian exchanges instead.

According to new data from Dow Jones’ VentureSource, exactly half of the companies that completed an IPO in the third quarter did so in Asian and European markets.

“Countries with the best rule of law, the best bankruptcy protection, the freest trade, the freest markets, and … Continue Reading

Glam Media hires new CFO, honing its edge for a likely IPO

Glam Media announced today that it has hired 16-year Apple veteran Jeanne Seeley as its new chief financial officer and executive vice president, a move that likely positions the company for a public offering. Seeley starts work today.

Samir Arora, Glam’s chairman and chief executive officer, described Seeley as “one of the top Silicon Valley CFOs,” due in part to her extensive experience at Apple, where Arora also previously worked.

“Apple really has one of … Continue Reading

Zillow, Pandora only fresh IPOs to outlast market slip

Continued uncertainty about financial stability in Europe and a government deadlock in the United States struck publicly-traded equities on Thursday, sending the tech-heavy NASDAQ index down 3.3 percent and below a technical level of support that might indicate future weakness.

The S&P 500 crashed through a level of support — a numerical value that sends a signal to automatic trading algorithms to stop selling stocks — the index held at around 1,150 during a massive … Continue Reading

LivingSocial may take $200M round instead of filing an IPO

Daily online deals startup LivingSocial might delay filing its initial public offering in favor of a new $200 million funding round, according to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

The fact that both LivingSocial and rival Groupon are rethinking their IPO strategies could signal a slow down in the market demand for daily deals across the board.

The potential round, which would value LivingSocial at $6 billion, could include both equity … Continue Reading

Groupon IPO still coming this fall

Groupon’s highly anticipated IPO, which stalled amid market volatility earlier this summer, is back on track.

Sources close to the matter told The New York Times that the daily deals company’s initial public offering is now slated for late October or early November.

The company has been delaying its IPO at least since early September.

The general market downturn has doubtless played a role in the company’s IPO plans. At the start of the most … Continue Reading

Woah, Facebook has huge 30 percent profit margins – IPO is looking pretty good

New financial details reported earlier today by Reuters about social media giant Facebook indicate that the company’s situation is more than good enough to go public.

Granted, Reuters cited “anonymous sources,” meaning none of this is confirmed. But let’s take a look at the numbers and what they suggest if they are accurate.

Facebook doubled its revenue to $1.6 billion and its net income to $500 million in the first half of the year, according … Continue Reading

Groupon to reassess the timing of its IPO, cancels roadshow

Group deals service Groupon has delayed its plans for an initial public offering due to stock market volatility, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Groupon, which was originally planning to go public after the Labor Day holiday, still has plans for an IPO, but the company is reassessing the timing for it on a week-by-week basis, according to the Journal’s anonymous source. The company also canceled a roadshow that had been scheduled for next … Continue Reading

Guidewire insurance software files $100M IPO

Insurance technology software company Guidewire Software filed an initial public offering that aims to raise about $100 million, the company announced Tuesday.

Guidewire offers software solutions for insurance companies that provide property, workers’ compensation and casualty insurance to its customers. Its software solutions includes a web-based claims system, an enterprise application for transactions and other administrative tasks.

The startup has over 100 customers, including major insurance company clients, including Nationwide, CNA and American Family Insurance.… Continue Reading

Zynga lines up its next social game: Adventure World

Zynga just revealed a teaser for its next big social game, an Indiana Jones-inspired creation called Adventure World.

The video trailer on the new Adventure World fan page says “you can explore exotic lands, solve ancient puzzles, and bring your friends along for a ride.” Zynga hasn’t described the game in more detail yet, but it appears to be a expansion into a new genre for the company, which is the leading maker of Facebook … Continue Reading

RPM software company Eloqua files $100M IPO

Revenue performance management (RPM) software company Eloqua Limited Wednesday filed an initial public offering estimated at $100 million.

Eloqua’s RPM software solution is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that provides its clients with analytics to help predict revenue performance by tracking a number of different marketing and communication platforms. The company’s clients include Adobe, Dow Jones, Fidelity, Polycom, and many others.

It fits into a larger category of marketing automation tools: Software and services aimed at … Continue Reading

‘China’s YouTube’ Tudou raises $174M in U.S. IPO

YouTube-like site Tudou has priced its initial public offering (IPO) and will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market this morning under the symbol TUDO, reports Bloomberg.

The site lets you access movies, TV shows, self-produced content and user-generated videos — although, most U.S. visitors probably know it best as a place to catch illegally streaming programs. (We addressed the issue of Chinese piracy sites being funding via U.S. stock markets in our coverage of … Continue Reading

Week in review: Drool over iPhone 5 pics made from design specs

Here’s our roundup of the week’s top tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

New iPhone 5 images based on leaked design specs — A new set of iPhone 5 device mockups making the rounds could be giving consumers a glimpse of what’s to come on launch day.

Hacking water meters is easier than it should be — The smarter water meters become, the easier they’re getting … Continue Reading