Deals firm Living Social says no plans for IPO

  • Tian Chua, Haris, Tamrin to be detained overnight at Jinjang
    Tian Chua, Haris, Tamrin to be detained overnight at Jinjang

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers Chua Tian Chang and Tamrin Ghafar, and political activist Haris Ibrahim, have been arrested for sedition and will be held overnight at the police lockup in Jinjang today.

  • Bar suggests new laws to give MACC more power
    Bar suggests new laws to give MACC more power

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should be given more power to fight graft with the introduction of new legislation, the Malaysian Bar has said.

  • May 25 rally to proceed despite arrests, vows SAMM
    May 25 rally to proceed despite arrests, vows SAMM

    The 'People's Gathering' in front of the Amcorp Mall field in Petaling Jaya on Saturday will go ahead despite the police arresting several leaders of opposition political parties and non-governmental organisations today.

  • Opposition party papers seized as nationwide crackdown begins
    Opposition party papers seized as nationwide crackdown begins

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Over a thousand copies of PAS-owned Malay newspaper Harakah as well as DAP-owned The Rocket and PKR’s Suara Keadilan were carted off by home ministry officials from shops and several distribution centres in a nationwide raid today, as Putrajaya mounts an apparent crackdown against Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters.

  • Police to take action against group who disrupted candlelight vigil
    Police to take action against group who disrupted candlelight vigil

    GEORGE TOWN, May 23 — Police will take action against the group of men who disrupted a candlelight vigil in Esplanade last night that resulted in a scuffle, injuring a reporter and an activist.

Living Social, the number two US online deals firm, indicated Wednesday it had no immediate plans for an initial public offering, saying it had sufficient funds to expand its operations.

Chief executive Tim O'Shaughnessy told a small group of journalists at the firm's Washington headquarters that he was not contemplating an IPO.

"I don't talk about it in any significant way," he said. "If the pros outweigh the cons, we would do it."

O'Shaughnessy made no specific to reference to the IPO of Facebook, which has dampened enthusiasm about social media, or of its chief rival Groupon, which has tumbled since it went public a year ago.

But executives said the company, which launched as a Facebook app in 2007, was expanding its workforce of 5,000 and now had 67 million members in 20 countries.

Living Social cited research reports that it has 26 percent of the North American online deals market, to 61 percent for Groupon, but that a lot of the smaller players are leaving the market.

O'Shaughnessy said Living Social was moving away from the model of a pure coupon or deals firm, and launching its own events such as cooking classes, yoga demonstrations and its own travel service.

It current gets 75 percent of revenue from so-called daily deals, such as discounted restaurant meals or spa services.

"But daily deals will probably be less than 50 percent of our revenue in a foreseeable time," the CEO said.

Chief financial officer John Bax said the company, which has raised some $600 million in venture capital and has a 29 percent stake owned by Amazon, did not need new capital "the way we have the business configured today."

Bax also said the company was not looking at becoming an acquisition target.

"This is a healthy business, this is a healthy industry," Bax told the media event.

"There are people who have had doubts, there are people who are rooting against this industry, maybe not because of us... But this is a healthy business that will be viable for a long time."

Sentiment in the sector has been depressed by the disappointing Facebook IPO and woes from Groupon, which has been dogged by questions about its business model and accounting methods.

According to data released in Amazon securities filings, Living Social showed a net profit of $156 million in the first quarter of 2012 after a loss in 2011, but Living Social cautioned that the numbers may be skewed by exceptional events and stock compensation.

Loading...

Comments on Yahoo! pages are subject to our link to Comments Guidelines. You are responsible for any content that you post. Yahoo! is not responsible or liable in any way for comments posted by its users. Yahoo! does not in any way endorse or support comments made by its users.