Groupon IPO Reportedly Coming In 2011

BANGALORE: Online discount coupon provider Groupon Inc is working toward a potential public offering of its common shares by the end of 2011, the New York Times said, citing people briefed on the matter.

Groupon, the fast-growing online coupon seller, said on Tuesday it has been authorized to raise up to $950 million in what would be the biggest round of equity financing by any company since Pixar in 1995.

The company said in a filing with the state of Delaware that it intended to sell shares at $31.59 each.

The tech startup, which had recently spurned a $6 billion takeover bid from Google, has attracted funding from several big institutional investors including Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe
Price and Morgan Stanley, the newspaper said.

Groupon could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Comments

[independent32955-2]

12:28 PM on 01/02/2011

I cannot believe anyone would think this "concept" is worth a nickel. I have yet to hear of a single success story from the retailers who make groupon offers available....except of course groupon itself.

[winias]

05:31 AM on 01/03/2011

It's sold as great PR but it's short lived and fizzles fast. You're right. Groupon and customers make out just dandy though.

[mc53]

12:35 PM on 12/31/2010

I remember when tycoons made their money by employing thousands of workers and actually making a product. This is the new economy. Make money by sending coupons to people for discounted crap. Wonderful.

[WiseGoat]

03:42 PM on 12/30/2010

Great,
another company that adds NO REAL VALUE to society or life itself, is going to Wall Street...and another guy is going to get rich selling imaginary valuations to unsuspecting people who so desperately want to save up for their future, or become rich someday too.

[vivo]

11:42 AM on 01/01/2011

Emphasis on "imaginary valuations".

"A $79 value" - Why? Because my consumer behavior data say it's a great price point.

[leftLibertarian]

12:30 PM on 12/30/2010

I can't find any toilet paper coupons!

[dblan9]

12:21 PM on 12/30/2010

Why do people refuse to look at Mark Cuban and emulate his actions? he took the money and ran when Yahoo offered it. Why did Groupon refuse 6 Billion? Do they believe they are more profitable than that?

[Sundialsvc4]

11:22 AM on 12/30/2010

Please enjoy the thought of yet another twenty-something gazillionaire, but I, for one, am never going to "invest" in an online version of grocery-store coupons.

We know perfectly well that the finance industries want to start another dot-com bubble, but let's face it, "yet another web-site" is passe. You don't need nearly a billion dollars in cash to create, or even to promote, a web-site that sells coupons.

Less than one-tenth of the once publicly-traded companies of April 2000 exist today. You would imagine that we would have learned that lesson by now. It takes much more than a web-site to have a company.

[boyer37212]

01:29 PM on 12/30/2010

If you owned shares now, the IPO would be great for you.

The barriers to entry are low for this idea, however, the barriers for big execution are pretty high (hiring sales staff).

Overall, I see this as a fad/commodity concept. Early entrants get big-time rich. In ten years, will Groupon still be a big force? I doubt it.

[NicksMuse]

02:13 PM on 12/30/2010

Says the girl who clearly knows very little.

[Chauncey Love]

03:08 PM on 12/30/2010

Do illuminate us all.

[jasev01]

10:25 AM on 12/30/2010

this is going to bust.  it is overreaching like any other tech bubble company.  This guy has a website, a good one but just a website.  it can be replicated and done better.  He should have taken google's offer or shopped it for a better offer.  Ultimately if google wants it it can now just take 51% of the stock and pay less for it.

[dudekabob]

10:35 AM on 12/30/2010

Sorry, but you haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about. For instance, Groupon recently offered a gourmet meal at a local Indian restaurant for about $25, or half off the usual cost. They had more than 3,000 takers. Groupon's income is 50% of what the restaurant makes. That's $37,500 for a single offer. Multiply that by thousands of offers per day in various cities around the world. Groupon is a gold mine.

[Please-Play-Fair]

10:48 AM on 12/30/2010

I didn't realize they get 50%.  This is has been great for restaurants and retailers in a down economy.  It gets people in the door then they hope to have them return at full price!

I'd be more worried about a Facebook doing something than I would from Google.

[Sundialsvc4]

11:29 AM on 12/30/2010

... but not from the point-of-view of the restaurant, and herein lies the fallacy of the whole deal. "Something that is too good to be true," is true.

The profit-margins of even a well-run restaurant operation are something on the order of 3 to 5 percent. So, if you like to eat meals at that Indian restaurant, you'd better hurry-up and do it.

Furthermore: it is highly unlikely that the restaurant has the sustained capacity to provide that number of meals. Which means that people are going to buy coupons offering them a discount on a service that they can't actually receive. Is Groupon going to start handing them their money back? Don't bet on it: I'm sure they want to book all that revenue. (And if they do have an allowance-for-returns, as they certainly should, then this drastically changes the attractiveness of the offer and thus the true profitability of the endeavor ... which is being wildly overstated.

It is a well known fact that people will follow-the-crowd when the next big thing seems to be coming along. "Dumping gobs of venture capital money" is a great way to promote it. (So, for that matter, is an IPO.) But a fool and his money are quickly parted. Let the buyer beware.

[vivo]

09:59 AM on 12/30/2010

If you enjoy PREPAYING for a product or service that can be voided due to expiration dates or other restrictio­ns then Groupon is for you!

[hkochii]

09:28 AM on 12/30/2010

I don't see the logic in passing up a six billion dollar offer from Google. I'm guessing the board of directors believe they can do better. It'll be interesting to follow this and see what ultimately comes of it.

[mc53]

10:15 AM on 12/30/2010

It is spelled "Greed".

[Please-Play-Fair]

10:52 AM on 12/30/2010

I disagree.  Taking the $6 billion could be considered greed.  IPO is much better for employees and for consumers.  Nobody is building a company for IPO anymore.  Government put plenty of restrictions on that after the dot com bust.  So, now it's only about building a company for being acquired.  That isn't good for America or employees because acquisition means lost jobs and bigger corporate organizations.  Isn't that against everything liberals believe in?

[Ron Maggio]

08:48 AM on 12/30/2010

Friends and Family!