Coupons.com debuted this week on the New York Stock Exchange and soared by 88% in its first day with an IPO. The coupon site online listed its shares at $16 and ended the first day at $30.
The company was able to raise $168 million in the IPO after releasing over 10.5 million shares. The coupon company has a current market capitalization of $2.2 billion.
Coupons.com was founded in 1998 and offers discounts on drugstore and grocery store items. In recent years, the company has enjoyed substantial growth. Steven Boal the CEO said the company has grown from 2009 transactions that totaled 345 million to last year’s total of 1.3 billion.
Coupons.com receives its revenue through ad sales and when a particular coupon code is accessed off its platform. Each time a consumer downloads or has a coupon printed the company is paid, said the CEO.
On analyst familiar with the industry said that as the newspaper industry continues to die, the incentive dollars have gone somewhere else and Coupons.com is one place they have gone.
However, Coupons.com has yet to be profitable on an annual basis. Last year, the company posted an $11 million net loss. That compared with a net loss of $59 million in 2012.
One competitor RetailMeNot had an IPO in July of last year. Its shares jumped by 108%. Both of the online sites serve consumers as a database for coupons.
Coupons.com has received venture capital in the amount of $277 million, with the majority coming from the company Passport Capital, which owns a stake of 20% in Coupons.com. T. Rowe Price is another venture capitalist that holds a stake of 10% in the online coupon site.
Goldman Sachs led the new offering, while RBC Capital Markets, Bank of America and Allen & Co served as the underwriters.
IPOs in the U.S. have had a strong start in 2014, with a total of 46 making it the best pace of any year since 2007.
