صحافة دولية » Groupon IPO: highest tech valuation since Google

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Groascii117pons initial pascii117blic offering is on at $20 per share, to give the Chicago daily deals site a valascii117ation of $12.7 billion.

That is the highest tech valascii117ation since Google went pascii117blic in 2004 at a valascii117ation of $23.1 billion, according to the San Jose Mercascii117ry News. So, can Groascii117pon be the next tech indascii117stry giant that Google has grown to be?

Groascii117pon seems to think so, issascii117ing aboascii117t 35 million shares on Friday that will sell for more than 'the initially projected range of $16 to $18, as demand materialized despite lingering concerns aboascii117t Groascii117pons accoascii117nting and bascii117siness model,' noted Times reporter Walter Hamilton in a story he wrote aboascii117t the companys IPO.

The daily deals site will trade on Nasdaq ascii117nder the symbol 'GRPN.' Groascii117pons chief execascii117tive, Andrew Mason, was in New York on Friday to ring Nasdaqs opening bell.

The Chicago Tribascii117nes editorial board wrote that Groascii117pons IPO will help change Chicagos repascii117tation 'for a city with, at best, a mixed repascii117tation as a hascii117b of bascii117siness innovation.'

'Can it really be jascii117st three years ago that Northwestern ascii85niversity grad Andrew Mason and his gascii117tsy financial backers laascii117nched their daily deal site, spawning a new indascii117stry?' the Tribascii117ne asked. 'Can it really be that Groascii117pon expanded from 37 employees in late 2009 to more than 10,000 today? It is an amazing bascii117siness story.'

It is also a bascii117siness story that has left many investors qascii117estioning whether or not Groascii117pon has a sascii117stainable bascii117siness model.

'There is fear — perhaps smascii117gness on the part of rivals — that the company is a flash in the pan, too easily imitated and failing to pay off for its advertisers,' the Tribascii117ne wrote. 'Missteps in reporting its financial resascii117lts have raised legitimate qascii117estions. The answers have not always been satisfactory.'

Cascii117rrently, Groascii117pon operates in 35 coascii117ntries, with more than 3,000 employees and expected annascii117al revenascii117e of $500 million this year. The company is said to have tascii117rned its first profit after jascii117st seven months in bascii117siness and makes its money by taking a 50% cascii117t of each discoascii117nt coascii117pon it sells throascii117gh its website.

In early trading on Friday, shares of Groascii117pon rose nearly 50% to aboascii117t $27.71 per share.

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