Who won in the Groupon IPO? Hint: not Google

The Groupon IPO made quite a few happy billionaires on Friday

Groupon’s phantasmagoric IPO saw some raging highs and some interesting lows on Friday—at one point surging ahead more than 50% to $30 a share before settling back down to a more reasonable $26.  In either event, there are quite a few happy shareholders this morning.  So who won out in the Groupon IPO? 

If you guessed “the founders,” you’re right!  Who’da thunk?...

Coming in at first place with the largest stake is Eric Lefkofsky and his wife, Liz, who own a combined 129.3 million shares, or 21% of the company, which means their stake in Groupon is now worth a whopping $3.34 billion.  As Andrew Mason tells it, he left graduate school to start Groupon’s predecessor, The Point, at Eric Lefkofsky’s urging.  Later on, The Point became Groupon “to get Eric to stop bugging me to find a business model,” says Mason.

Coming in second: NEA, whose own managing partner Peter Barris serves on Groupon’s board of directors.  NEA owns 87.5 million shares, or 14.6% of the company, making its stake worth $2.28 billion.

Rounding out the top three is Andrew Mason, who owns 46.9 million shares, or 7.7% of the company.  Groupon’s closing price of $26 a share brings Mason’s total stake in the company to $1.22 billion.

Fellow Groupon founder Brad Keywell and his wife, Kim, came in fourth with 41.2 million shares, which are now worth $1.07 billion.

NEA wasn’t the only VC firm to make out in the IPO.  Accel, whose Kevin Efrusy serves on the board of directors, owns 33.2 million shares, which means the firm’s stake in Groupon is now worth $863 million.

Among the other shareholders are former COO Rob Solomon, whose four million shares are now worth over $104 million, and former CTO Ken Pelletier, whose 2.7 million shares are now worth $70.2 million.  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz owns some 1.9 million shares, which are now worth $49.4 million, and investor Ted Leonsis’s 1.85 million shares are now worth $48.1 million.

You know who didn't win out in the Groupon IPO?  Google.  Groupon’s market cap is more than $15 billion—more than twice the $6 billion Google offered Groupon during their buyout talks last year.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say Groupon’s shareholders are satisfied with the way things turned out.

Groupon closed at $26 on Friday and was down Monday morning to $24 as of 11:20 am ET.

Image source: icanhascheezburger