Posts Tagged ‘IPO’

Groupon, Inc. (GRPN) pops on first day of trading

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Shares of daily deals site, Groupon, Inc. (Nasdaq: GRPN) surged nearly 50 percent in its debut on the Nasdaq on Friday. Groupon shares touched a high of $31.14 in morning trading on Friday up from its IPO price of $20 per share.

The company on Thursday sold 35 million shares for $20 each, raising $700 million. It had filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 30 million shares for $16 to $18 each.

The three-year-old company is one of this year’s most hyped IPOs, and has one of the smallest floats of the past 10-years — slightly more than 5 percent of the company.

“Groupon is expensive. The $12.8 billion valuation is only achievable because of the low float,” Rob Romero, head of technology-focused hedge fund firm Connective Capital Management told Reuters.

At $12.8 billion, Groupon’s price tag is more than two-times what Google offered for the company last year.

Groupon “is a company with permission to market to 150 million consumers daily. No other company in the world has ever had that type of reach,” Boyan Josic, chief executive at DailyDealMedia, which tracks the industry, told Reuters.

 

FSIN, SODA, OPEN – Buzz Stocks With Big Gains on Wednesday

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

Fushi Copperweld, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSIN) was up 23 percent to $11.26 per share from Tuesday’s closing price, in morning trading on Wednesday after the company announced that it received a proposal letter from its Chairman and CEO and Abax Global Capital on behalf of funds managed by it and its affiliates Fu and Abax to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Common Stock of Fushi not currently owned by Fu and his affiliates in a going private transaction for $11.50 per share in cash. Fu and his affiliates own ~29.2% of Fushi’s Common Stock. Fushi Copperweld, Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops, designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes bimetallic wire products, principally copper-clad aluminum (CCA) and copper-clad steel (CCS). Shares of Fushi Copperweld, Inc. are up about 23 percent over the past three months.

Shares of SodaStream International Ltd. (Nasdaq: SODA) were up 19 percent from its IPO price of $20 per share, in morning trading on Wednesday, touching a high of $25.50 per share. The company also said its underwriters have a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 817,105 shares to cover excess demand. That’s up from a previously reported 710,526 shares. The company plans to use the proceeds from the offering to pay back about $33.2 million owed to financial institutions; repay about $1.9 million owed to shareholders; pay approximately $34 million in costs related to building or buying another manufacturing plant; and pay a one-time $2.4 million termination fee to Fortissimo Capital Fund GP for ending a management services contract. The remaining funds will be used for working capital and other general corporate purposes. SodaStream’s home beverage carbonation systems can help consumers convert tap water into carbonated soft drinks and sparkling water. The company was founded in 1991, and had sales of $144 million over the last 12 months.

Online restaurant-reservation service OpenTable, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPEN) reported third quarter earnings of 23 cents a share, on sales of $24.5 million. Analysts polled by FactSet, on average, expected earnings of 15 cents per share on sales of $23.2 million. Shares of OpenTable were up as much as 17 percent from Tuesday’s closing price, in morning trading on Wednesday, touching a 52-week high of $72.20 per share. Higher mobile application and Internet drove reservation growth 54 percent over year-ago levels and at a faster pace than the 52 percent growth in the second quarter. In light of the strong results, ThinkEquity analyst Aaron Kessler raised his full year targets for OpenTable to total 2010 earnings-per-share to be 77 cents, up from 66 cents. Kessler also raised his sales prediction to $98.6 million from $96.9 million. Shares of OpenTable are up about 50 percent over the past three months.

Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Shares of mobile data services provider, Motricity, Inc. (Nasdaq: MOTR) soared as much as 22 percent from Tuesday’s closing price, in morning trading on Wednesday. This marks the second day Motricity shares rose,  after the company announced through a regulatory filing, that it signed an agreement to roll out its mCore service with Indian wireless carrier Reliance Communications Ltd.

Motricity was up as much as 40 percent from Monday’s closing price, on Tuesday.
[–quote–]
Motricity said the service, which lets wireless carriers get their users onto the Internet via mobile devices such as cell phones, will be used for Reliance’s mobile data services business.

At the time Motricity filed its IPO in January, the company had already generated more than $100 million in revenue in 2008. And although it was not yet profitable, was expecting to raise as much as $250 million from investors in its IPO. Ultimately, Motricity ended up settling on a much lower $50 million to close the deal.

Motricity trimmed its 2009 net loss to $16 million, down from $78 million in 2008. Revenue for 2009 clocked in at $113 million.

Although the company did not disclose financial terms of the Reliance deal, Baird analyst William V. Power called the deal “significant.”

“While the overall revenue opportunity is lower in India vs. developed markets, we expect that to change as data penetration improves,” he wrote in a note to investors.

Using Vodafone India as a proxy, Power estimated that the deal could add $15.2 million to $30.8 million to Motricity’s annual revenue.