Want a piece of the Groupon pie? You'll soon have the chance. On Thursday, the number one group buying site filed to go public.
Expected to fetch upwards of $750 million, the IPO will be led jointly by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse. Groupon hasn't yet determined how many shares will be up for grabs or how they'll be priced.
Groupon has experienced a meteoric rise since its launch in 2008. It now has about 8,000 employees working to offer deals in more than 170 cities. The IPO has given the first glimpse at Groupon's financials. In 2009, Groupon earned $30 million, and in 2010 that number skyrocketed to $713 million. But Groupon hasn't yet proven itself to be profitable. It also lost $413 million in 2010, and it lost about $114 million in the first quarter of 2011.
But Groupon's growth is undeniable. According to Experian Hitwise, Groupon's market share expanded by 564 percent in the past year, and last week Groupon was the 64th most visited site in the country. The IPO buzz started back in November when the Chicago-based company turned down an acquisition offer from Google, rumored to be worth a whopping $6 billion.
The IPO news isn't a surprise. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason confirmed earlier this year that the company headed for an IPO. According to the filing, Groupon wants to maintain the integrity of its service, which was the first of its kind.
"We are unusual and we like it that way," it reads. "We want the time people spend with Groupon to be memorable. Life is too short to be a boring company."
Now that Groupon is going public, many have drawn a comparison with LinkedIn, which landed a $9 billion IPO late last month. These astronomical valuations will no doubt revive an ongoing debate about whether there is a tech bubble.