Groupon raises $700M in largest Internet IPO since Google

By Andrew Couts November 4, 2011

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Daily deals giant Groupon has raised a monstrous $700 million in its initial public offering, making it the largest IPO from an Internet company since Google raised $1.7 billion when it went public in 2004.

Groupon set its stock price at $20 a share, higher than even the most generous estimates of between $16 and $18 a share, reports Kara Swisher at AllThingsD. Due to massive demand for its stock, the company also decided to increase the number of shares in its IPO from 30 million to 35 million. At the $20 trading price, Groupon is now worth approximately $12.7 billion. The company, which will trade under the GRPN ticker on the Nasdaq, is only three years old.

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Based in Chicago, Groupon has had a swift and tumultuous ride to its IPO. Many have criticized the company for its use of alternative accounting methods in the run-up to its IPO. And volatility within Groupon’s executive echelon, as well as questionable growth prospects and suspicion that partner retailer boost prices before offering a “discount” through Groupon, has tainted the dealmaker’s reputation in some circles.

Despite the bad press and setbacks, Groupon obviously remains a highly sought after stock. The price of the company’s stock is expected to hold strong ~~when the Nasdaq opening bell rings at 9:30am ET this morning~~. Update: Groupon will be released on quotation at 10:25am ET, and trading on the stock will start at 10:40am ET.

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How to use social media and save on Small Business Saturday

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Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the unending onslaught of online deals, there is another holiday shopping day that might get lost in the shuffle: Small Business Saturday. This year marks the second annual such event, a new tradition that tries to steal some addition from chain retailers and big e-commerce sites and give it to local vendors.
And this year, the fledging ritual is getting some serious attention from social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Google have all pledge their efforts in support, offering and encouraging small business owners to use their sites’ tools to promote shopping this weekend.
Local retailers aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit this weekend. What happens to consumers who want the discounts but sans the chain names (that are sometimes attached to controversy) they go hand in hand with? Small business Saturday can fill that void along with the help of some geo-social applications.
Foursquare
Foursquare has been at the top of the social-meets-location game since it began, and Small Business Saturday will be no exception. If you have an American Express card, sync it to your Foursquare account following these directions. Then when you check-in to shops who have partnered with the service via Foursquare on Saturday, you will see a button that says “load to card.” Then when you spend at least $25 or more at the participating store, you’ll get a notification saying $25 was credited to your Amex account. American Express is a sponsor of Small Business Saturday, so ratcheting up sales is in its best interest, but turns out they’re willing to compensate you for helping make the event a success.
Etsy
The purveyor of all things handcrafted is a natural fit for small business Saturday—and will appeal to those who want to buy “local” without leaving their living rooms. Just searching “Small Business Saturday” on the site brought up a slew of items that will be on sale this weekend, and this blog catalogued some of the best e-shops on the site that offered discounts last year.
Daily deal sites
While the likes of LivingSocial and Groupon tend to offer food and spa deals, the occasional local retailer pops up. Between now and Small Business Saturday, a minimal amount of homework and creating an account with one (or all) of these sites could save you some Monday. We'd advise getting with something like The Dealmix, which collects a large variety of all these local deals. Keep an eye out on any of these applications for vendor or shop deals in your area. Then make a call or check Facebook to see if they are participating in Small Business Saturday. Then add those savings to whatever discount the daily deal site was offering. Of course, you should check that you can use coupons during the Saturday sale.
Facebook
Facebook is offering a slew of tools for small businesses to take advantage of, but the site is also catering to consumers. Check out the Small Business Saturday Facebook page and you’ll have access to a variety of information, including city guides for optimizing your local shopping in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as organized events in cities nationwide. Some of them include raffles, free gift wrapping, Santa visits for the kids, and community breakfasts.
Twitter
Be sure to follow your favorite local business on Twitter, if you haven’t already. We’re sure a great many of these sites will have implemented a Follow button (one of the tools in the Small Business Saturday kid), and will be using the hashtags #ShopSmall, #ShopSmallNov26, #SmallBizSaturday and #SmallBusinessSaturday to spread word of their discounts this weekend.

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Groupon and other Daily Deal sites aim for larger holiday shopping share

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We've already seen examples of holiday shopping getting out of control; some of you perhaps facing said craziness first-hand. This year, more people are planning on hassle-free shopping online than in the past, and Daily Deals sites are planning on grabbing a good portion of that traffic by pumping out scores of more offers than last season.
Groupon has returned with another round of its Wintertime celebration Grouponicus, where Groupo the Deal Bird brings magical stacks of Groupons to the true believers. Grouponicus comes to an expanded 41 cities (compared to last year's 15) and will be offering new “Epic Deals” such as backstage tours of the Ellen DeGeneres show or cooking lessons from chef Todd English. The site also makes it more convenient to send offers to friends, noting list price not the price paid for gifts.
LivingSocial announced it would be offering half-off deals for Black Friday with 20 national retailers, including Verizon Wireless, Electronic Arts, Office Max and Sketchers. LivingSocial says that Cyber Monday will bring a whole new batch of similar deals from the same retailers. The company is also offering new holiday gift boxes which contain four themed local events and a voucher to use at one of the options.
Cyber Monday deal hunters should also be aware of Rue La La's series of sales renewing at 11 a.m. Every morning until Cyber Monday. The flash sales shopping site, Gilt Groupe, will be offering new sales launches every three hours come Monday, and is throwing in free shipping on all purchases.
Despite the sharp 35% fall in Groupon's stock Wednesday, a survey from LinkShare points out that people still want daily deals. Out of 1000 surveyed, 56% said they'd buy from unknown brands if presented with the right deal at the right time. Daily deal sites are supposedly looking at a $100 million in holiday coupon sales this year according to an estimate from the Yipit deal aggregation site.
Via Washington Post

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Groupon shares drop below $20 IPO price for first time

Things were looking pretty good for Groupon when it went public on November 4. Shares in the daily deals company rose on the first day of trading by around 50 percent on its launch price of $20 per share, though it soon settled at around $26.
This week, however, Groupon’s share value has tumbled, and on Wednesday fell 16 percent to $16.96 per share, taking it below the launch price for the first time.
Groupon raised $700 million in its IPO, impressive for a company that only started doing business in 2008. Indeed, it was the largest IPO by an American Internet company since Google raised $1.7 billion back in 2004.
Speaking to the New York Times about Groupon’s share price drop, Paul Bard, a director of an IPO advisory firm, said, “In the environment we’re in right now, investors are wary of risk, and so these less-seasoned companies will naturally face more selling pressure.”
Fears of increased competition from rivals such as Amazon-backed LivingSocial and Google Offers has also caused some investors to offload their shares, said a Reuters report. The cut-throat daily deals business has already reached saturation point, with many rival companies going out of business in recent months.
“When returns turn negative, that creates a problem for the IPO market because what’s the incentive to buy into the next IPO?” Bard said. He added, “Bankers are now probably revisiting how many and which deals they will launch.”
The sharp fall in Groupon’s share value will certainly be a matter of serious concern for other technology companies - Facebook and Zynga among them - which are considering an IPO in the near future. A report a couple of months back suggested Facebook would wait until late 2012 before going public - looking at the way things are going for Groupon just now, holding on until a later date like that will probably be the route many technology companies will decide to take.