Yelp! Inc. just filed their form S-1 to go public, likely by mid-2012 if the IPO market stays open. Yelp is the #1 business reviews platform for consumers to talk about what they like, and don’t like, in a public setting. Since launching in September 2004, they’ve amassed over 22 million reviews.
Here are a few notes from the S-1 IPO filing:
- #1 free listed travel app on the Apple App Store (pg 1)
- 61 million unique monthly visitors (pg 2)
- 19,000 active local business accounts paying for their premium service (pg 2)
- $58.4 million in net revenue for the first nine months of 2011 with a net loss of $7.6 million (pg 2)
- Shopping and restaurants represent 46% of the reviews (pg 3)
- Growth strategy: growth in existing markets, expand to new geographic markets, platform expansion, and enhance monetization (pg 5)
- 43 Yelp markets in the U.S. and 22 Yelp markets internationally (pg 6)
- Revenues (pg 10)
$12.14M (2008)
$25.81M (2009)
$47.73M (2010)
$58.38M (first nine months of 2011) - Losses (pg 10)
$6.23M (2008)
$2.33M (2009)
$9.51M (2010)
$7.41M (first nine months of 2011) - Accumulated deficit of approximately $32.1 million (pg 15)
- CEO recently testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition related to Google (pg 19)
- Currently a defendant in seven patent infringement suits (pg 22)
- In the process of settling a suit that alleges violation of labor laws for up to $1.3M (pg 22)
- Advertising contracts are typically 3, 6, or 12 months (pg 24)
- Going to spend approximately $15 million internationally in 2012 (pg 53)
- Strengths: passionate community, leading brand in local, powerful network effect, proven market development strategy, local-focused sales force, proprietary technology, and attractive business model (pg 80)
- As of September 30, 2011, Yelp had 852 full-time employees globally (pg 89)
- CEO 2010 salary was $210,000 (pg 102)
- COO 2010 salary was $235,000 (pg 102)
- Venture capitalists own 74.9% of the company (pg 118)
- The CEO/co-founder owns 11.1% of the company (pg 118)
The Yelp S-1 was straightforward and didn’t provide any suprises.
What else? What are your thoughts on the Yelp S-1 IPO filing?
