Groupon Shares Soar 40 Percent on First Day of Trading, Valuating it at $18b, €13b

Groupon has finally started trading publicly. After quite a troubled road to the IPO, company shares started trading on the New York NASDAQ market. Immediately after becoming available, shares soared and finally stabilized at around $28, €20.3, 40 percent over the starting price of $20, €14.5.

At this price, the company is worth almost $18 billion, €13 billion, three times what Google wanted to pay for it a year ago. Initially, the company was aiming at a valuation of about $11 billion to $12 billion, €8 billion to €8.7 billion.

Groupon is only selling around 5.5 percent of its shares at this moment, which would account for a the fast rising price, at least partially. But it's clear that, despite all of the bad press prior to the IPO.

At these share prices, Groupon has raised about $980 million, €713 in the IPO. It is also the second biggest tech IPO since Google, which opened at a valuation of over $23 billion, €17 billion in 2004.