Social buying powerhouse Groupon may be looking to move ahead with an initial public offering (IPO), according to anonymous bank sources in the New York Times.
The company recently turned down a $6 billion dollar acquisition offer from Google and, while many people said they were crazy, a $15 billion IPO could be a good indication of why. Others noted the reason was that the search giant lacked the needed human touch for daily deals.
Groupon has been working hard to secure a large amount of funding, which may be attractive to investors if an IPO occurs. In recent fundraising, the company initially snagged $500 million and then finally pulled in a total of $950 million from investors like Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley.
Another indication that an IPO is on the horizon may be the hiring of the company&'s first chief financial offer, Jason Child, who was based in Seattle as head of finance for all Amazon websites outside of North America.
Groupon, based in Chicago and founded in 2008, claims to have more than 24 million subscribers in 150 cities and around 3,000 employees.
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Companies: Groupon
People: Jason Child
Companies: Groupon
People: Jason Child
Cody Barbierri is a social and digital media consultant. He works for Piehead and blogs about social media at Social Tab. (None of his posts are about clients or their competitors.) Reach him at Cody@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Cody on Twitter.
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