AAA Amazon-backed LivingSocial eyes $15bn valuation

Amazon-backed LivingSocial eyes $15bn valuation

LivingSocial has reportedly appointed US-based banks Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase and Germany-based Deutsche Bank as the lead underwriters in a potential flotation, according to news provider the Wall Street Journal.

The initial public offering plans follows LivingSocial raising more than $400m in April from an undisclosed mix of new and existing public and private investors. The round valued LivingSocial at about $2bn, according to press reports, and news provider Fortune said mutual fund manager T Rowe Price and venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners had invested. This sum took the total raised by LivingSocial to more than $600m.

At the time of the April fundraising, Tim O’Shaughnessy, chief executive and co-founder of LivingSocial, said: "With this investment we will bring LivingSocial to tens of millions of new members around the world and introduce innovative ways to connect our members to merchants."

Amazon invested $175m in the company in December. The company also raised $25m in a series B round in March last year in a round led by venture firm US Venture Partners, with Grotech Ventures and Revolution, AOL founder Steve Case’s fund. Grotech links to a Fortune report on its website saying that Grotech sold some of the shares from the $5m series A round it led into the company in 2008, for about $200m recently.

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