Daily deals website Groupon has priced its IPO at $20 a share, a few dollars above the anticipated range of $16 to $18, in a heavily oversubscribed offering. Groupon added five million additional shares to its offering, bringing the total to 35 million shares sold. That still only accounts for 5.5 percent of the company. Groupon will be valued at almost $13 billion before it debuts on the Nasdaq Stock Market this Friday (GRPN).
The Wall Street Journal reports that Groupon will be the highest-profile Web IPO since late summer.
Groupon is selling a small amount of shares, which has become common for recent Internet IPOs.
In Groupon’s SEC filing on October 21, it planned to share only 30 million shares, valuing the company at $11.4 billion. Groupon’s initial filing in June 2011 expected to raise $750 million. At its highest, Groupon’s IPO was valued at $20B.
In May, LinkedIn became the first of the major social networks to go public. It initially priced shares at $45; by the end of the day, they shot up to $122 each. Groupon became the second major tech company after LinkedIn to aim for the public market. Groupon launched in November 2008 and went public after three years. LinkedIn waited eight years to go public after launching in May 2003.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse Group lead the Groupon offering.
Groupon will officially go public tomorrow on Nasdaq as GRPN.
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