Groupon’s share price plunged below its starting value on Wednesday less than three weeks after its initial public offering (IPO).
Groupon’s share price was set at $20 per share pre-IPO, but began trading on Nasdaq on November 4th at $28 per share, rising to a peak of $31.14 per share on opening day, yet the shares had fallen 45.2% from this peak valuation at Wednesday’s close to $16.96 per share, a daily fall of more than 15% and marking the first time Groupon’s share price dipped below its IPO price.
Wednesday’s close marked the third consecutive day in which Groupon’s stock has fallen more than 10%, and the price is down more than 30% this week.
The Nasdaq market as a whole has dipped almost 9% since Groupon’s flotation as events such as the US government’s supercomittee disbanding and continuing uncertainty in the Eurozone took their toll.
Networking website LinkedIn’s share price slump ended its 180 day lock-up period on Monday, and 24 million additional shares were made available to be sold on the market by employees and early investors. LinkedIn’s share price is also down significantly since its flotation at $66 per share.
There are also a series of sizeable IPOs in the pipeline, starting with online games companies Zynga, which expects to raise about $1bn, and Nexon, which is expected to raise more than $1.2bn when it floats on the Japanese market next month. Further IPOs are expected from Groupon competitor Living Social and social networking site Facebook, among others, next year.
