Groupon IPO Delayed No More? Daily Deals Giant Moves Forward With its Public Offering

Facebook and Zynga are out – but Groupon could be back in. According to the New York Times, Groupon is pushing ahead with an IPO launch in 2011 – possibly as soon as October. This would mean that Groupon's roadshow, which was postponed following the release of Andrew Mason's memo, could start by the middle of next month. This is a major step forward for Groupon, which is currently reveling in rising revenue while its competitors, including the Amazon.com AMZN-backed LivingSocial, are faced with declines. Zynga and Facebook are doing just fine at the moment, but that didn't stop either company from delaying their IPOs. The restart of Groupon's IPO is reportedly driven by a resolution between the company and the SEC (which reportedly had “questions” for Groupon following the release of Mason's memo). Interestingly, the New York Times says that the memo troubles aren't all that different from an incident Google GOOG had during its IPO quiet period in 2004. At that time, the company's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, gave an interview to Playboy magazine. Google was required to amend its prospectus to include the Playboy interview, and Groupon could be required to do the same with its memo. But the SEC/Groupon resolution is not the only reason for the imminent IPO; according to the New York Times' sources, market volatility has inspired Groupon to move quickly, as another round of market gyrations could delay the roadshow – and its IPO – once more. Follow me @LouisBedigian