Groupon scales back IPO size to $500 million: report
20 Oct 2011
Groupon, the world's largest online daily deals company, has scaled back the size of its initial public offer (IPO) to $500 million, from the earlier proposed $750 million, reports citing sources familiar with the situation said yesterday.
Groupon had, in June, had proposed to raise up to $750 million, valuing the company at about $12 billion, in one of the most closely watched (IPO) in recent years.
Groupon will sell about 5 per cent of the company through the IPO, which will value the Chicago-based coupon site at between $10 billion to just over $12 billion, the report said.
Grupon had, in meetings with underwriters earlier this year, had discussed valuation as high as $25 billion, according to media reports.
The widely-speculated IPO comes after it recently completed a $950 million round of funding from backers, including Russia's Mail.ru Group and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
From the funds raised, Groupon paid out $810 million to its investors and employees, including about $319 million to its chairman Eric Lefkofsky and his wife, which raised serious concerns from investors.
