Groupon IPO could mean $15B value

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason

(Crain's) — Groupon Inc.'s pageant of investment bankers included Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., who visited the company's headquarters on Friday, Bloomberg News reported.

Chicago-based Groupon last week raised nearly $1 billion from a host of new investors, including some of Silicon Valley's biggest venture firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, in what's expected to be a prelude to an initial public offering. Now the company is said to be interviewing investment bankers to handle the IPO, which could come later this year.

The two-year-old company could raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion in an IPO, according to CNBC. The New York Times said Groupon could have a market valuation of $15 billion to $20 billion.

Groupon isn't under any pressure to do an IPO. Unlike many tech startups, the company is profitable. And about $344 million of the $950 million it raised recently will go to cash out some early investors and employees.

But the company, which dominates the deal-of-the-day space on the Web, is generating massive buzz, and investment bankers are eager to take social-networking companies public in hopes of jumpstarting the IPO market. For Groupon, an IPO would further cement its brand while providing additional capital for growth.