When social buying website Groupon turned down a $6 billion buyout offer from Google, it was a shock to many industry insiders who thought the offer was generous, but now The New York Times’ DealBook blog is reporting that the company is ready to “push ahead with plans for an initial public offering, a debut that could value the company at $15 billion or more.”
The announcement of a potential IPO comes just one week after we reported that the company raised $950 million in venture capital from various firms and expanded their reach from one to 35 countries with 500 new markets in 2010 alone, while increasing site use by 2,500% and bringing in more than 60,000 unique businesses to their marketing fold.
With talks of a “company bubble” surrounding some analysts thoughts, DealBook is reporting that Groupon is trying to raise their IPO when the goings good:
Groupon, say analysts, may be moving quickly to take advantage of the market’s momentum and the excitement around fast-growing Web companies.
“It’s smart to strike while the iron is hot, and they’re the most visible and fastest growing player in their market,” said [Greg Sterling, an analyst and the founder of Sterling Market Intelligence]. “To wait a year would inject a level of uncertainty for the proposition of going public.”
While the possibility of another web bubble may exist, company’s this time around actually have business plans and with an estimated $50+ million dollars switching hands from buyers to Groupon on a monthly basis and those numbers expected to continue their upward swing, this may be one IPO worth a closer look.
