Groupon Files for $15 Billion IPO

Groupon has made it official and has filed for an initial public offer, tentatively valuating the company at $15 billion and selling $750 million worth of stock. With its intention to go public, Groupon also revealed some interesting internal numbers, showing just how well, or not, it has been doing.

As expected, Groupon is making tons of money and growing very, very fast. Unexpected though is the fact that, even as it's making tons of money, it's losing even more, $413 million in the last year alone.

The company generated revenues of $713 million in 2010, an impressive figure but somewhat below what some rumors said. And it still managed to lose $413 million, indicating that Groupon is spending quite a lot of money.

Even more impressive, first quarter revenues almost equal all of 2010, it made $645 million in the first three months of the year and still lost $114 million.

Still, the loss was smaller than what the company saw in 2010, though Groupon said it expects spending to continue at this rate to keep fueling growth.

Much of the money goes towards advertising, Groupon spent $241.5 million in 2010 on marketing and a further $179.9 million in Q1 2011.

And it's definitely working, revenue is surging but also subscriber numbers. Groupon now has 83 million subscribers which receive deals from 57,000 merchants in 43 countries.

Last year, Groupon sold 30 million coupons. In the first three months of this year it sold 28 million. This while still expanding aggressively in new markets.

International revenue was only $265 million, 37.2 percent of the total revenue, last year, so there's clearly a lot of room to grow. There are still some details to work out and it remains to be seen how the market receives yet another tech IPO, but it is going to be one of the most interesting ones.