Local search and user-generated review site Yelp has become the latest technology firm to surge onto the stock market. The company yesterday closed out its IPO with its stock price up nearly 64 percent eight years after its founding.
Local search and review site Yelp has become the latest technology firm to surge onto the stock market.
The company yesterday closed out its initial public offering (IPO) with its stock price up nearly 64 percent. As of closing, Yelp shares were trading at a price of $24.58 up from an opening price of $15 per share.
The IPO comes just eight years after Yelp was first founded. The San Francisco-based firm has become popular among consumers for its user-generated reviews and ratings system. Business owners, however, have at times had a contentious relationship with the site.
The company also found itself at the center of controversy last summer when it was among the parties that filed complaints against Google alleging anticompetitive behavior, which isn’t surprising given the history between the two companies, which includes Google targeting Yelp directly with Google Places.
Yelp’s IPO is the latest in what has become a steady stream of social media and web service companies going public. Last summer, professional networking service LinkedIn saw its share price double in its IPO.
Later in the year, web services Pandora and GroupOn issued their own IPOs with solid results. The firms were later joined by social gaming specialist Zynga.
The biggest public offering, however, is set to take place later this year when social networking giant Facebook undertakes its IPO. The company last month filed for an offering which could send the value of the company soaring upwards of $100 billion.
This article was originally published on V3.