Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO

This post has been updated.

Local review site Yelp has filed for a $100 million IPO.

According to the company's S-1 filing with the SEC, the IPO is slated for 2012 and is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Jefferies.

"Reports have been that Yelp will seek a valuation of between $1 billion and $2 billion, although today's filing does not reflect any specific valuation hopes," writes Forbes.

Yelp reports in its Form S-1 that it generated $58.4 in net revenue during the first 9 months of 2011. This marks 80 percent growth over the same period last year. The company also reported a net loss of $7.6 million during that same period and claimed a monthly average of 61 million unique visitors to its website during the third quarter of 2011.

TechCrunch points out that the San Francisco-based company turned down a $550 million offer from Google in 2009. During that year, Yelp's net revenue was $25.8 million, less than half of what it reported to the SEC on Thursday.

Yelp currently boasts 22 million reviews for services that range from restaurants and bars to travel and auto businesses.

Comments

[cyoohoos]

04:57 PM on 11/18/2011

Yelp has potential.

[des946]

03:45 PM on 11/18/2011

So, do the financial institutions and the stock brokers get a 20% to 40% "discount", PLUS their brokerage fees from the investors? Thi has just become another way of bilking naive investors out of their money.

Wall Street is too manipulated and corrupt to invest your money into it.

[treasuredtrophie]

02:17 PM on 11/18/2011

I see another OB bummer on the jobless numbers about the Coal Workers. You can only amaze me to continue to support OB and his WH party.

[treasuredtrophie]

02:16 PM on 11/18/2011

I hope Nancy got in early.

[des946]

03:47 PM on 11/18/2011

As a "professional coutesy", she would have surely been given a FULL discount (20% to 40% off the street price); and they would have surely have forgone any brokerage fees for her transaction, huh?

RHIP .. . . Rank Has Its Priviages, right?

[Food Review 101]

09:35 AM on 11/18/2011

http://www.foodreview101.com/ I'm not sure about the investment oppurtunity with that, but I love the web-site.

[thewirah]

09:08 AM on 11/18/2011

I don't read yelp anymore. I am tired of having to have to scroll at the bottom of each review page, click on "filtered reviews" and go through thecaptcha test to finally be allowed to see the real reviews that were removed because the owner paid a fee to yelp.

[smooth4x4]

08:18 AM on 11/18/2011

and then there are those that think privatizing everything is a wonderful risk to take.

[xiaogermaine8]

07:22 AM on 11/18/2011

Pelisi must be involved. Her and her Liberal Democrates made milllions and she is laughing in the face of every liber marching on wall street today arm in arm with the president. Fools. They should learn to read and be in Washington asking about Freddie and Fanny.

[jr3houpe1849]

08:30 AM on 11/18/2011

Do not forget boehner and the rest of the congress and senate they are allowed to do insider trading

[jr3houpe1849]

08:33 AM on 11/18/2011

Sorry I forgot Newts 1.6 million dollar payday from freddie

[Loyal Whig]

05:17 AM on 11/18/2011

Occupy Yelp. We'll call ourselves, "OY"!

[rich8049]

05:16 AM on 11/18/2011

This is what is called taking a chance with your invested money my liberals. They will either make a bundle or none at all. They took the risk to start the business and are now trying to expand it. And I am sure for you liberals you will love them if they make a lot of money because then you will be asking them to give you some since they dont need it. Or as the buzz word of the liberals is today, the libs will ask that they pay their "fair share".

[oneeasyrider]

06:21 AM on 11/18/2011

Oh sure, you're partially correct. But no need to speak for liberals when most of us can speak for ourselves. You see, we liberals actually do root for upstart success, but also realize someone has to pay for the wars you conservatives desire -- to pacify your fears. Then, there are the soldiers to take care of during and after war. Federally funded NASA developed the web. And, universities with Federally funded research developed young minds who create the upstarts. Not so simple is it?

Everyone wants to see people rewarded for their success. Alternatively, just makes sense to pay-it-forward with a sensible progressive tax rate at the same time to keep the whole scenario humming along in a healthy vibrant manner.

[bbursky]

06:35 AM on 11/18/2011

That makes perfect sense.

[medialv2]

04:05 AM on 11/18/2011

Everyone knows that these 'review' sites are manipulated by fake 'review' posters beyond belief.

Can you say Fiverr anyone? It's all fake review posting $5 gigs.

It's a big scam, because there is no way to police the 'reviews'

Your competition writes you bad reviews & vice versa. They write themselves great reviews and you do the same for your own business. It's a charade.

[medialv2]

04:02 AM on 11/18/2011

Yeah, I 'want' to invest in a company that Google, Bing or Yahoo wants to make invisible so people use their inhouse reviews instead.

This sounds like a desperation IPO.

It's a terrible review site, that is losing search engine visibility like the Titanic.

[jjkrjw0]

02:42 AM on 11/18/2011

Does Pelosi know about this? She loves IPOs.

[mytakeon]

12:30 AM on 11/18/2011

I will not give Yelp a dime as a small biz owner. If they changed their review filtering process I might consider it. When I use Yelp, I click "filtered reviews" in light grey font on the bottom left under the posted reviews. This is where the real reviews are that Yelp has determined are not real. If a customer reviews something for the first time, it is automatically filtered. Try writing more than one review and your review probably won't be filtered. Hey Yelp, change your filtering process and you will make lots of cash!

[plantbasedpunk]

10:26 AM on 11/18/2011

I'm OK with that. I think there's big difference between Yelpers (people who write multiple reviews on Yelp) and people who just want to complain online.

Also, this keeps people from creating multiple accounts and posting single reviews for a business just to bump up their rating.

[laurenproof12]

11:01 AM on 11/18/2011

Unfortuately most people only write negative reviews. A great experience review is not as commonly shared. Its usually the poor experience that drives someone to actually log on and speak up. Just because its negative doesn't make it real. That's just silly to assume that!

[reikomax]

12:24 AM on 11/18/2011

The problem with Yelp is that they don't permit the posting of negative restaurant reviews--only positive are allowed. If you post a negative review too many times, they ban you from the site!