It’s here: Groupon files for hotly anticipated IPO

It’s here: Groupon files for hotly anticipated IPO
Getty/Scott Olson
It’s here: Groupon files for hotly anticipated IPO
Getty/Scott Olson

It’s here: Groupon files for hotly anticipated IPO

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

The daily deal website Groupon has filed to sell shares to the public, stoking excitement about a new tech boom in Chicago.

Groupon plans to raise as much $750 million and says it will use the money for working capital, including buying other companies.

Last year, Forbes called Groupon the fastest-growing company ever, and anticipation of a Groupon IPO has been growing ever since the company reportedly spurned a $6 billion buyout offer from Google.

Waverly Deutsch is a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She says this is a huge deal for Chicago’s tech scene.

“Either in 2000 or 2001, BusinessWeek featured a cover article that was, ‘How Did Chicago Entirely Miss the Tech Boom?’ They can’t say that this time around,” Deutsch said.

In its IPO filing, Groupon says sales grew from $3 million in the second quarter of 2009 to $645 million in the first quarter of this year. The company says its ticker symbol will be GRPN.