groupon

Groupon's stock closes up 31% on first day of trading

Groupon, the brash and much-criticized daily-deals pioneer, did it.

Shares of the 3-year-old Internet company closed at $26.11 today on the Nasdaq, a jump of more than 31 percent from its offering price of $20. That leaves Groupon with a market valuation of about $16.7 billion, almost three times the buyout offer from Google it rejected in December, and surely enough to reignite the debate of whether Bubble 2.0 is here.

Today's valuation makes Groupon nearly as big as Yahoo, 10 times the size of AOL, and more than 15 times the size of The New … Read more

Groupon shares soar in early trading

Daily-deals provider Groupon has gone public at last, and its shares soared from the start.

In the opening minutes, Groupon was trading up to $29.20, a 46 percent gain on its opening price of $20 per share.

Groupon closed out its first day on the market up 30 percent to $26.11.

Investors and Groupon watchers who had been awaiting the long-anticipated initial public offering had to wait a little extra time this morning. Groupon, which trades under the ticker symbol GRPN, didn't debut till an hour or so after the start of trading on the Nasdaq.

The … Read more

Watching Groupon's IPO by the numbers

Groupon launches its initial public offering on Friday and there are comparison’s to Google’s debut, worries about the end of the world, and lots of talk about how much the company has to prove.

The storylines today are going to be relatively predictable. To wit:

There will be the Groupon is a sign of a bubble story. There’s the Groupon failed because shares didn’t do much Friday story. There’s the “wow look at that surge” story assuming shares do anything. And then there are a lot of tales about whether Groupon has the chops to … Read more

Groupon IPO oversubscribed, shares price at $20--reports

Groupon priced its IPO at $20 a share, above its expected range of $16 to $18, in a heavily oversubscribed offering that led the daily-deals site to sell an additional 5 million shares, according to reports.

The increase in offering price, which had been expected, brings Groupon's valuation to $12.7 billion. Shares of the Chicago-based company stock were oversubscribed by a factor of 10, AllThingsD reported.

Groupon upped the number of shares it will offer tomorrow to a total of 35 million. That still represents only 5.4 percent of its 637.3 million shares outstanding.

Demand for … Read more

Angie's List sets IPO price, seeks to raise $114.3M

Angie's List, a consumer review site where people rate everything from doctors to tree services, disclosed today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it will seek to raise $114.3 million in an initial public offering.

The company, based in Indianapolis, plans to offer 8.8 million shares for $11 to $13 apiece. It's aiming to go public before Thanksgiving and will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ANGI.

Angie's List was launched in 1995 by Angie Hicks. Its focus was on home services, but the service has expanded into … Read more

Groupon expected to go public Friday

Daily deals giant Groupon is on track to set its IPO pricing tomorrow and release shares to the public on Friday, according to news reports and analysts.

Groupon has filed with regulators to sell 30 million shares at $16 to $18 per share. The Chicago-based company is seeking to raise $540 million and a valuation of $11.4 billion. It's still unclear whether Groupon's underwriters will raise its offering price, AllThingsD is reporting.

Groupon declined CNET's request for comment on the IPO timing.

Earlier this year Groupon was valued at $20 billion and on track to move … Read more

Forget hyper local: New deal site goes anti-local

You're launching a daily deal site with a (slightly) new twist. You're sure it's the next big thing. Yet there are so many sites out there--384, according to Yipit, a firm that tries to makes sense of all these deals for consumers--and the press is already writing the people-are-sick-of-daily-deal-sites stories.

So what do you do to get attention? You launch the same week that the granddaddy of daily deal sites, 3-year-old Groupon, is going public.

The CEO and founder of DailyDeals.com, Steve Schaffer, says the timing for today's launch wasn't planned to be near … Read more

Groupon's founders to retain control post-IPO

Once Groupon goes public on Friday, its founding trio won't be giving up their sway over the daily deals giant they started in October 2008, thanks to a dual-class share structure that's rigged in their favor.

According to an amended SEC filing posted today, Groupon's three founders--CEO Andrew Mason, Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky, and Director Bradley Keywell--will control 58.1 percent of the voting shares of outstanding capital stock. Specifically, the founders will own 34.1 percent of Class A common stock--each share of which gets one vote--and 100 percent of supervoting Class B shares, which each … Read more

Groupon may raise IPO pricing

As Groupon wrapped up the first leg of its no-frills roadshow in New York City on Friday, the daily deals giant was said to be considering raising its IPO price.

The Chicago-based company may file an amended S-1 document early next week, ahead of its anticipated IPO pricing date on November 3, Reuters and Bloomberg are reporting.

Groupon has filed with regulators to sell 30 million shares at $16 to $18 per share. And in that range, Groupon could raise $621 million and be valued at up to $11.4 billion, bankers said.

Earlier this year Groupon was valued at $… Read more