Groupon Gets More Financing; Gearing Up for Possible 2011 IPO

Marla Shaivitz December 30, 2010 Tweet

Groupon recently has attracted substantial institutional investments, thought to signal an upcoming IPO in 2011.

Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley have reported financial commitments with Groupon. The new round of financing, which could reach as high as $950 million, could be closed in the next few weeks, according to TechCrunch.

Groupon, the group-buying site that rejected takeover offers from Yahoo and more recently Google, has hired a CFO, another move analysts believe indicates an impending move to becoming a publicly-traded company.

An article in today’s New York Times today notes that, “Groupon has become a hot commodity in Silicon Valley. In the last six months its valuation on secondary markets, where investors buy shares from existing shareholders like former employees, has tripled, to $4.8 billion.”