The world's largest discount online service Groupon raised $700 million in its IPO. The company's offering was the second largest in the Internet market after Google's $1.9 billion IPO in 2004, Bloomberg reports .

Groupon's offering price was $20 per share. The IPO results were better than the company's expectations and analysts' forecasts. Groupon's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on October 21 listed an amount of $540 million. The company's total capitalization immediately after the IPO was $12.7 billion, which was 11% higher than expected.

On the first day of trading, Groupon shares, trading on NASDAQ under the ticker GRPN, rose $6.11 (30.6%) to $26.11, while during the debut session the rise reached 56%.

Groupon's free float was the smallest of all Internet companies that had an IPO in the last 10 years and raised more than $200 million. The company planned to place 30 million shares, or 4.7% of the capital, but then placed an additional 5 million shares, and, thus, About 5.5% of its capital is currently traded on the market.

The lead banks - Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse - used a limited supply strategy to ensure strong demand for shares at the offering and on the first day of trading. According to experts, the banks earned about $40 million from the deal.

Groupon initially expected a valuation of $20-25 billion, but the company abandoned these plans, citing market instability.

The $11 billion-plus valuation that Groupon has sought in recent months has made the money-losing company more expensive than Amazon and even Microsoft relative to the companies' projected revenues for next year.

By some accounts, Groupon's $11 billion valuation would be about five times the company's expected 2012 revenue of about $2.1 billion. By comparison, Amazon's market value is about 1.5 times projected revenue, and Microsoft has a ratio of 2.9 to 1.

Groupon's largest shareholders are the company's founders: Eric Lefkowski, who will own 28.1% of the votes following the IPO, Andrew Mason (19.8%) and Bradley Kivell (10.2%).

Groupon's leading investors also include the Russian Mail.ru Group and the DST Global fund, controlled by Alisher Usmanov and Yuri Milner, Interfax recalls .

In April 2010, Mail.ru acquired 3,113,080 “F” series prefs for $100 million – at $32.1 per share, according to Groupon’s prospectus. In January of this year, entities affiliated with DST Global purchased 1,614,436 Series G preferred shares for $51 million. During this round of financing, the securities were sold at $31.59.

Thus, based on the results of the IPO and conversion, Mail.ru owns about 37.4 million shares of class “A” (5.9% of capital), DST Global – 6.5 million securities of this type (1% of capital).

Mail.ru Group is considering the possibility of selling its stake in Groupon after the company goes public, provided that a good price is given for its shares, Mail.ru CEO Dmitry Grishin previously said.

As a result of the IPO, Groupon's authorized capital will include 630,403,352 Class A ordinary shares and 2,399,976 Class B securities. Each class “A” share carries the right to one vote, each “B” share – 150 votes.

The company also has preferred shares, which will be converted into common stock during the IPO. “Prefs” of series “D”, “E” and “F” will be exchanged for shares of class “A” in the ratio of 1 to 12, “prefs” “G” - in the ratio of 1 to 4. Preferred shares “B” will be exchanged for ordinary shares of class "B" with a coefficient of 1 to 12.

Groupon raised $700 million in IPO