By Adam E. John
“Today, Groupon opened for public trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol GRPN,” wrothe the company’s co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason in the company blog. Groupon has finally opened for public trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GRPN. The company’s stocks rose to some 55 per cent in Nasdaq trading, and is currently up by around 40 per cent, at the time of this post.
Andrew Mason (Co-Founder and CEO Groupon): With our IPO behind us, I couldn’t be more excited about what lies ahead.
Groupon’s IPO raised $700 million, in a heady Internet rush reminiscent of Google’s 2004 debut. The Mountain View giant had raised $1.9 billion as part of its IPO, and Groupon seconds that achievement.
The IPO had its fair share of ups, downs, skepticism, optimism, and extremely well-attended road shows. For one, Groupon had originally said it was cash-positive, but later confirmed that it owed money to its merchants. Groupon’s spurned suitor, which also happened to be Google, started its own Groupon-like business in Google Offers, and promises to be a formidable opponent. Threat also comes from rivals LivingSocial and Amazon, who have joined hands.
(Adam E. John is consulting editor with techtaffy.com. He can be reached at adam@techtaffy.com)