According to AllThingsDigital, Groupon wants to file for its long-rumored IPO this week, and may be doing so without approval from its bankers. It’s been reported that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are leading the offering together, but according to inside sources Groupon is in a rush to tie up loose ends and might not have the patience to wait to get all of its finances in line.
Groupon’s value has risen to an estimated $15 billion or so, and with the oversaturation of the deal-a-day market being what it is, no one can really blame CEO Andrew Mason and his team for wanting to jump ship while the company is worth so much. Groupon has been called the fastest-growing startup in history and has continued to offer new features: GrouponLive launched yesterday, offering discount tickets to local events, and CNN reports it’s preparing to launch a new smartphone app called Groupon Now. Groupon Now is a real-time coupon curator to offer up local coupons on the fly. When you’re on the go and suddenly plagued by your retail needs, the app will search the area for any discounts on what specifically you’re looking for. The deals won’t last for as long as most Groupons, generally only a few hours.
Even though there are more Groupon off-shoots than we care to count, this is the one that started them all and continues to lead the pack. There’s clearly innovation left up its sleeve, so it will be interesting to see how it juggles an IPO while continuing to further develop the platform at the same time.
