John Borkowski, July 15, 2011
Ever since Groupon filed their S-1 filing with the SEC back in early June, investors and social media experts have been wondering when exactly the official IPO date will be released. Groupon, the “deals and discounts” website, was offered a $6 billion takeover from Google in December 2010, clearly rejecting it because they feel as though they can grow tremendously in the online deals arena.
The reported IPO is anticipated to raise $750 million on the Street. The company is valued at $30 billion, although with recent competition stemming from Facebook deals (released in March), and the company still has yet to return a profit. In 2010, the company posted a net loss of $413.4 million, and a net loss of $113.9 million during Q1, 2011. Will investors pay attention to the financial data that makes Groupon a questionable investment? Most likely not. When LinkedIn went public on May 19 at an open price of $45 per share, it sky rocketed to over $105 a share during the first day of trading. At one point, the market value was 641 times their net income, which would have placed Apple’s valuation at $3 trillion!
Investors are clearly excited with social media IPO’s, often ignoring the fundamentals of the company. Groupon may be in that same conversation. The company is facing intense competition from Facebook Deals and other smaller firm deals sites, which explains the slowdown in revenue.
The official date has not been released yet, although investors believe it will be within the next 2 months. The much anticipated Facebook IPO is scheduled for April, 2012.
