Internet, Initial Public Offering | featured news

Daily deals site Groupon Inc filed for an initial public offering, hoping to capitalize on the biggest investor stampede into Web start-ups since the dotcom bubble burst a decade ago.

LinkedIn shares skyrocketed more than 80% to trade at about $86 a share, and at a high of $92.99 a share, on Thursday as the social networking site launched its initial public offering.

Professional networking site LinkedIn raised its price range for its IPO this week by 30%, valuing the company at $4 billion, a strong indication that demand is running high for the new stock.

Professional networking website LinkedIn Corp. plans to sell shares to investors for $32 to $35 each in an initial public offering, one of the first for a major U.S. social networking site.

Chinese social-networking Web site Renren sold shares in its IPO at $14 apiece.

Instead of seeking another round of financing, Yelp is considering an IPO. After announcing in 2010 that Yelp would not likely go public for several years, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that the company had put an IPO back on the table.

Groupon is expected to pick Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as its two lead underwriters for an IPO planned later this year. The IPO is expected to value the Chicago company at between $15 billion and $20 billion, these people said. The valuation could change depending on market conditions at the time of the IPO.

LinkedIn Corp., the company behind the largest website for professional networking, plans to raise at least $175 million in an initial public offering of stock that could open the IPO floodgates for other widely used online services that connect people with common interests....

ChinaCache International Holdings, a provider of Internet content, soared 95% on its Nasdaq trading.

Hulu, the online-video site owned by three large media companies, is exploring an initial public offering.