Yelp Reveals Plan for Initial Public offering
Yelp Inc., the popular online reviews site, filed Thursday for an impending initial public offering. The company indicated that it wants to raise $100 million in the IPO, for which Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and others will serve as underwriters. Insiders say the amount is likely to change, however, as the underwriters determine how may shares are to be sold and at what price, a process that typically takes anywhere from three to four months.
Based in San Francisco, Yelp Inc. operates Yelp.com, a social networking, user review, and local search web site. At the end of 2010, the website boasted 54 million unique monthly visitors. Through the first nine months of 2011, Yelp generated revenue of $58.4 million, according to its filing with the SEC, but booked a net loss of $7.6 million over that span.
In December 2009, reports surfaced that Yelp was in discussions with Internet giant Google, who was interested in buying the company for $500 million. The rumors didn’t last long, however, as Yelp executives announced just a few days later that they had rejected Google’s offer.
