Technology, Online Coupons | featured news

Groupon Inc's rapid growth has attracted rivals and regulators, a twin threat to the largest online daily deal company as it gets ready for an initial public offering.

LivingSocial has picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to lead-underwrite an IPO that could value the daily deals site at $10 billion to $15 billion, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

As Groupon clones have proliferated, the loyalty to Groupon of both consumers and merchants offering online deals has eroded.

Compared to Groupon, which has enormous administrative costs and is hemorrhaging a lot of money, Zynga is a ruthlessly-run, well-oiled machine.

Groupon was forced to restate fourth quarter earnings, sending its stock down 6% in after-hours trading. This surprised me as much as my $2 investment in the Mega Millions jackpot not paying off.

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.

What happens when you cross the world's largest social network with one of the hottest business models in e-commerce? Facebook wants to find out. Facebook is launching a deals program Tuesday in five U.S. cities, following on the popularity of Groupon and other services that offer deep discounts - for example: $50 worth of food at a local eatery for $25.

Whoops.Looks like The New York Times has a little embargo breaking situation on their hands. (Which we love -- chaos!) They've just put up a story with the URL: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/latest-rival-to-groupon-livingsocial-facebook-embargo-till-midnight/ (bolding mine). That page is obviously no longer found, but it was live for a bit. And it is a big one: Facebook's Groupon/LivingSocial "killer".

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.

Parents.com has a launched a new site similar to Groupon, that provides parents deals on products they can actually use.