File Yelp for $ 100 Million IPO

Joining the parade of social Internet companies lining up to go public, online review website Yelp has filed for a $100 million IPO.

Yelp is looking to add to the likes of Groupon and LinkedIn, which were the largest of the social web companies to list this year. Zynga is also expected to price soon. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Jefferies are leading the Yelp deal, with Allen & Co. and Oppenheimer also participating.

For the nine months ending Sept. 30, Yelp generated $58.4 million, up 80% from $32.5 million in the year-ago period. The company had a net loss of $7.6 million in the first nine months of 2011, slightly down from $8.5 million in the year-ago period.

Yelp has more than 22 million reviews and 61 million monthly unique visitors, up 63% year-over year, the company said.

Top shareholders are Bessemer Venture Partners with 22.5%, Elevation Partners (which is an investor in FORBES) with 22.4%, Benchmark Capital with 16.2% and Max Levchin with 13.8% and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman with 11.1%. Levchin, cofounder of PayPal and Slide, has a surprisingly large stake, considering he has not been an employee, so Levchin presumably had a large early investment in Yelp.

Posted in: Business News,Economy news,IPO