Groupon has filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is looking to raise $750 million and has hired Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs as its bankers.
That figure usually changes (rises) from the first IPO filing papers and since we don’t know the number of shares Groupon intends to sell, we don’t know the valuation of the company. However, some reports suggest the daily deal company could be valued at between $20 billion and $25 billion.
By comparison, LinkedIn, which went public two weeks ago, raised $352 million and has a current market capitalization of $7.4 billion.
The filing also notes the rapid success of Groupon, growing from five North American markets in June 2009 to 175 North American markets as well as markets in 42 other countries as of March 2011. At the same time, the subscriber base soared from 152,000 to 83.1 million, helping generate $3.3 million in revenue in Q2 2009, a figure that jumped to $644.7 million in Q1 2011. In terms of the number of employees, Groupon had 37 workers in June 2009, while now it employs more than 7,100 people.
However, the filing also mentions potential competition to from the likes of Google, Facebook and even Microsoft. Groupon said it will continue to invest in its long-term prospects and obviously hopes to stay in business despite the big boys’ increasing interest to enter the daily deals market…
[Via: CNet]