CHICAGO — Groupon Inc. filed on Thursday to go public, looking to raise up to $750 million, in what would be one of this year’s most high-profile IPOs.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse are the lead underwriters for the IPO of the internet company, which sells discounted goods and services through online deals.
Groupon earned $644.7 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2011, up from $3.3 million in the second quarter of 2009 and $44.2 million in the first quarter of 2010. But it lost $102.7 million in the first quarter.
Founded in November 2008, the Chicago-company rebuffed a $6-billion offer from Google Inc. last year and instead sought to pursue a public offering.
Groupon’s revenue has grown nearly 20,000 percent from June 2009, as millions of people signed on to take advantage of discounts on everything from pedicures to horseback-riding lessons. Its full-year revenue of $713.3 million for 2010 nearly compares with the $644.7 million it earned just for the first quarter of 2011.
The company, which has deals with nearly 57,000 local merchants in 43 countries and takes a cut from each sale, had sold 28.1 million “Groupons” at the end of March 2011.
Groupon employed more than 7,000 people as of the end of the first quarter — many of them salespeople who hunt down tie-ups with merchants.
The company plans to trade under the symbol “GRPN.” Groupon, which began preparing for an IPO earlier this year, could make its debut in the third quarter, they added at the time.
Groupon plans to use the proceeds from the IPO for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions.
The Groupon filing comes about two weeks after web professional network company LinkedIn Corp. went public on May 19 at $45 a share. The stock soared to over $100 per share and settled at $94 on the first day, which valued the company at a whopping $9 billion.
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