Here's what you need to know about the Yelp IPO

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Yelp is close to going public. The online review site has boatloads of traffic and plenty of user-generated content. Although it isn't profitable, the company appears to be headed in the right direction. Here's what you need to know:

1. Capital raise: Yelp plans to raise as much as $115 mn before fees in its IPO.

2. Pricing and shares: the 7.1 mn shares being offered are expected to price between $12 and $14. Yelp has given its bankers an option to sell another 1.07 mn shares on top of this.

3. Timing: Yelp is expected to go public on March 2, 2012 on NYSE. It will trade under the symbol YELP.

4. Valuation: Yelp is shooting for a valuation of as high as $840 mn. This is considerably higher than the $500 mn Google reportedly offered for the company in 2010.

5. Investors: Yelp has raised more than $50 mn in venture capital. Bessemer Venture Partners owns 22.5 percent of the company, along with Elevation Partners (22.4 percent) and Benchmark Capital (16.2 percent). Co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman holds 11.1 percent of the company, and Yelp's first investor, Max Levchin, has a 13.8 percent stake.

6. Vital stats: Yelp has 22 mn reviews on its site and 529,000 business pages. It attracts 61 mn monthly unique visitors.

7. Financials: Yelp lost $7.6 mn in the first nine months of 2011. This is an improvement over the same period in 2010, when it lost $8.5 mn.

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Source: International Business Times


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