Groupon IPO Shares Pop 40% On First Trade, Debuts At $28 With A $17.8B Market Cap

After some timing drama, daily deal site Groupon finally has begun trading on the NASDAQ this morning, in the most hotly anticipated and largest Internet company IPO since Google. The company -- which trades under the ticker $GRPN -- priced its shares at $20 last night, but began trading at $28, an increase of 40%. Like LinkedIn, Groupon is only floating a small amount of shares,  35 million -- about 5.5% of its 637.3 million shares outstanding. The first trade would pin its market cap at 17.8 billion, with a 980 million raise.

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