After three months of preparation Yelp has reached a consensus about a value for their stock and is almost ready to go public. Currently they report a target of $12- $14 per share and at that price, value of the company could soar to around $840 million. The shares will be made available on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “YELP”.
Yelp offers recommendations and reviews for visitors on everything from social functions to saturday night entertainment. As of the end of 2011, they attract nearly 61 million unique visitors. A couple of years ago Google was interested in purchasing Yelp, who turned down the $500 million offer.
Because the timing of the IPO is so closely positioned with the much anticipated Facebook public offering, Yelp will have to be skillful about how it manages the effort. If they can illustrate the strength, vitality, and versatility of their brand, they may prove to be one of the most profitable internet IPOs to date.
Dave Smith of International Business Times conveys the potential of Yelp and the forthcoming IPO:
“Yelp will be a great stock to buy, and it’s probably one of the few Internet companies that is actually worth buying.”
“More so than Facebook, Yelp stock could be extremely valuable because Yelp has so much more room to grow, while Facebook users lament when the platform makes any changes whatsoever.”
So it will be interesting to see what happens when these stocks finally go on sale, and even more interesting when we see which of them pays off, if not both. I wouldn’t want to gamble on either one of them being a huge money maker right now; the market is very fickle at present.