Daily deals giant Groupon might be in talks with several banks to file for an initial public offering later this year that would value the company at $25 billion, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
Groupon works with local businesses to offer steep discounts — sometimes anywhere from 50 to 90 percent. For example, it offered a year’s subscription to car-sharing service Zipcar along with $30 in driving credit for $30 — down from the typical cost of around $115.
The business model has proven it works well. Groupon’s success has inspired a number of “me-too” companies that focus on daily deals. Savings.com, for example, launched at the Launch Conference in San Francisco last month and aggregates a large number of deals from multiple sites. But none are more compelling than LivingSocial, which raised $175 million from online retailer Amazon.com in December.
It was clear that Groupon had its eyes set on going public after it spurned a $6 billion buyout offer from Google. The company said it expanded from 1 to 35 countries and grew from 2 million to more than 50 million subscribers in the past year when it announced its most recent funding round.
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
The daily deal site recently raised nearly $1 billion in a funding round closed in January. The site is backed by venture capital titans like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen-Horowitz and Greylock Partners. The most recent funding round valued Groupon at roughly $4.75 billion. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have spoken with Groupon about taking the company public at a valuation of $15 billion, according to the Bloomberg report.
