In light of the totally botched Facebook IPO, it’s no wonder many tech companies are in no hurry to go public.
According to LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaugnessy, you can add LivingSocial to that list. Despite recent losses for the company, they are aren’t hurting for the capital an IPO would bring in.
LivingSocial was recently able to raise $600 million in venture capital with Amazon controlling nearly 30% of the company.
While LivingSocial isn’t as popular as their closest competitor, Groupon, they aren’t looking to be acquired either. In fact, they invested heavily last year in ways to diversify and grow their business. Currently, Groupon is holding about 60% share of the daily deals market, and LivingSocial is holding 26%. There’s definitely room for growth.
The Washington, D.C.-based company is expanding regardless of not finding the diversity it needs to grow in the market. The D.C. City Council, and local business professionals are working on a tax abatement for LivingSocial in order to help them expand their operation within the city and attract more top-level talent to the tech laden area.
So while it looks like LivingSocial is joining the long list of tech companies totally off-put by the idea of going public, they have no desire to be acquired and continue to advance efforts to grow their business, and diversify their daily deal offerings.
Facebook aside, LivingSocial need only look at Groupon, their closest competitor, to see going public isn’t necessarily a fast-track to success.