SAN FRANCISCO — Online coupon seller Groupon is dangling its most tantalizing deal yet — an initial public offering of stock.
The prospect is likely to intensify a debate about whether an investment bubble is forming around promising but still unproven Internet companies as in the early stages of the dot-com boom in the 1990s.
Groupon Inc. took the first step toward selling its stock on Wall Street by filing its IPO papers Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The much-anticipated filing comes just two weeks after LinkedIn Corp., a popular Internet service for professional networking, saw its shares double in their first day of trading.
Chicago-based Groupon offers its subscribers the chance to purchase daily discounts targeted to their city and preferences. The initial price of Groupon’s shares and the number of shares won’t be set until the company gets closer to going public, typically in three to four months. The Associated Press
