Groupon raises 700 million dollars in IPO

Groupon Inc. on Friday raised 700 million U.S. dollars in its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock market. Groupon raised its issuing price to 20 dollars per share from a previous range of 16 to 18 dollars per share, and issued 35 million shares to raise a total of 700 million dollars. The IPO moved its market capitalization to nearly 13 billion dollars. The 700 million dollar IPO was the second largest by an internet company, just behind Google's 1.7 billion dollar IPO in 2004. The online "daily dealer," which offers internet coupons for almost everything, was founded just three years ago. The company's IPO was one of the most closely watched this year.