Yelp shares soar 63% on debut
Local customer-review champions Localist and Yellow might be be laying off staff. But in the US, Yelp - often cited by Localist boss Blair Glubb - has soared with its IPO.
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Local customer-review champions Localist and Yellow might be be laying off staff. But in the US, Yelp - often cited by Localist boss Blair Glubb - has soared with its IPO.
Yelp shares [NYSE:YELP] were up 63.87% during regular trading, and were up a further 11% after hours.
The US service - founded by two PayPal alumni - now boasts a database of 25 million customer reviews of restaurants, hotels, tradespeople and other services.
Today's surge gives Yelp a market cap of around $US1.5 billion.
That's modest by the standard of recent IPOs in the current tech bubble, but still leads to some robust multiples.
Yelp had $US83.3 million in 2011, up 74% from 2010.
It lost $US16.7 million, against $US9.6 million a year earlier.
The company said it broke even during the fourth quarter.
It has never made a profit.
NBR staff
Sat, 03 Mar 2012
Sat, 03 Mar 2012
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Yelp shares soar 63% on debut
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