Online-coupon firm Groupon Inc. could be valued at as much as $25 billion in an IPO, Bloomberg reports, citing two people with knowledge of the company’s discussions with banks. The offering, roughly half of what Facebook is currently worth, may happen this year and would likely value the two-year-old start-up at a minimum of $15 billion, the sources told Bloomberg.
Groupon has doubled its subscriber base in the past three months. Over the course of fiscal 2010 it grew to 50 million users, from 3 million, an unheard of metric. The Chicago-based company now has a total of 70 million users and reaches more than 500 markets, up from 300, or 60% higher from Google Inc’s (GOOG) $6 billion bid in December.
Groupon’s valuation has continued to soar, up from $1.3 billion in April 2010. The co., which offers daily discounts of as much as 90% from local businesses, such as restaurants, nail salons and clothing stores, did $760 million in revenue last year and it’s projecting billions for this year.
Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) have discussed handling the IPO for the company.
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