Shares of Coupons.com gained 88% in their first day of trading Friday, as the investor shopping spree for IPOs continues. The company, which provides digital coupons for consumers, saw its shares jump $14 to close at $30 apiece, a strong showing especially considering the IPO price range had already been raised. The company sold shares to initial investors at $16 each, up from the $12 to $14 a share range expected when the company filed its plans to go public last October.
What to make of an Internet IPO, the second of the year in the consumer-Web space, that nearly doubles from its offering price on its first day of trading? That has the ominous ticker COUP and a name that rhymes with Groupon? That, like Groupon, went public with a business plan to remake an old retail model, with fast-growing revenue and with nary a cent in profit? What, in other words, to make of Coupons.com’s successful IPO? Is it a new take on the old Groupon, the startup that burned through so much cash to finance hasty growth it plummeted from its initial post-IPO highs? Or the new Groupon, the one that finally found traction by shifting away from daily deals and toward a mobile-centric deal database? Is this a powerful new player in the Internet sector? Or are invstors buying the stock above $30 a share being played?
