With Groupon rumored to be eying a IPO that would value it at $25 billion, despite the current stock plunge due to Japan’s catastrophe, and Pandora already having its IPO in motion, we figured it was time to check on the media IPOs that have already taken place this year. How are they doing?
Pretty well, actually. Despite the recent battering of stock prices, both Nielsen Holding NV, parent of The Nielsen Company, and Demand Media are still trading above their IPO prices.
Nielsen was the bigger of the two and the biggest IPO so far this year, raking in over $2.1 billion for the company. The TV ratings and consumer research company reported early this month that Q4 revenues were up 7.2% and EBITDA 6.1%. Nielsen’s stock has traded as high as $27.84 since its January 25th IPO at $23.00. It has fallen back lately with the market, but is still well above $26.
Demand Media, an Internet content provider, did a much smaller IPO, $100 million, the same day as Nielsen. It priced at $17.00 per share. Despite recent fears that Google’s new search algorithm would penalize content farms like Demand Media, its online visitor counts have held up. The stock traded as high as $26.46 before falling back recently to $20-plus.
RBR-TVBR observation: It takes a long time to get an IPO from the initial SEC filing to the actual sale of stock – nearly seven months for Nielsen – so the current market turmoil probably won’t deter Groupon from beginning the process. Quite a few broadcasters have been in the market in recent months selling bonds. Will anyone be trying to sell stock as well?
