Groupon has put its flotation plans back on track, but Facebook is delaying its IPO until the end of 2012, according to news reports. According to a report in the New York Times, the online coupon site is aiming to go public in late October or early November. A week after the daily deals website […]
Groupon has put its flotation plans back on track, but Facebook is delaying its IPO until the end of 2012, according to news reports. According to a report in the New York Times, the online coupon site is aiming to go public in late October or early November. A week after the daily deals website put its IPO on hold for a few weeks as it waited to ride out global market turmoil.
16/09/2011
The company, which had postponed a roadshow to attract potential investors early this month, could go ahead with the presentations by mid-October, sources told the NY Times.
The online coupon giant’s Chief Executive Andrew Mason had earlier lashed out at critics in an internal memo to employees, which became public in August.
The IPO restart is being driven in part by a resolution between the company and the Securities and Exchange Commission over the memo, sources told the newspaper.
Groupon, which is among a clutch of Internet companies heading toward an IPO this year or next, including social games maker Zynga and Facebook, could again delay the stock sale and roadshow in case of another bout of market volatility, people briefed on the matter told the paper.
Facebook delays IPO?
Meanwhile, Facebook surpassed 500 shareholders in January when Goldman Sachs became an investor, meaning it will have to publish numbers by April 2012. Many have speculated that once its financials are disclosed the company will float.
But sources told the Financial Times that the date has been pushed back from April until September to keep employees focused on product developments in the pipeline.
The social network company has attracted a $66.5bn (£42.1bn) valuation from trading on secondary markets, according to the newspaper.
Linkedin was the first social media company to float in January, trading its first shares in May.
