Groupon Cools Down IPO Fever, Seeks Market Viability
In spite of growth momentum, a robust business model and reasonable pricing, daily deal website Groupon is still not able to determine a specific time for its IPO. Groupon executives are committed to take the company public, but due to volatility in the stock market, regulators are now reviewing the company’s IPO documents more diligently.
There is also report that Groupon’s Chief Operating Officer Margo Georgiadis is leaving the company and re-joining former employer Google. Even worse, the company’s second quarter results were of a mixed bag. Groupon projected revenue to touch $688 million after a forecast of $1.5 billion for the first half of the year, in light of the recent market fluctuations. In addition, the stock market’s current instability is also causing a road block for the company to go for an IPO. Groupon’s plan was to go forward with its IPO in late October or early November.
The company had been hoping to go public since June, and was marked as one of the most high profile IPOs of the year. But its IPO could get delayed further as federal regulators found some irregularities on its self-selected financial metrics. The company also canceled a roadshow scheduled for next week in advance of a planned IPO. Groupon is looking to raise up to $750 million through an IPO.
Groupon executives still are not sure of the company’s IPO timing, but the major shareholders including Capital Group Cos., T-Rowe Price Group, Fidelity Investment and Morgan Stanley Investment Management are still very speculative on the company’s future and are keen to invest in the company stock.
Groupon is not the only company to pull from an IPO; at least 15 other companies have decided to postpone their IPOs in the recent past, according to a report from Dealogic. Nevertheless, the IPO party is in full swing for other companies like Fusion-io, LinkedIn, LivingSocial and Pandora and others planned to shift to public offering by this year. This was followed by the fastest growing real estate search companies including Trulia, IZEA and Zillow.
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