Yelp Hires Goldman, Citigroup for IPO

San Francisco-based review site expects to go live within the next year.

Yelp is making no secrets that it plans to go public sooner rather than later.

The San Francisco-based review site has taken another step towards going public by hiring Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to lead its offering.

The company is expected to have a valuation of $1.5 to $2 billion once it does go public, far higher than the reported $500 million that Google had offered to take over the company.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said in July that his company "couldn't help but notice social-media plays like Groupon going public."

He said that he envisioned Groupon going public within the next year but he did not have an exact time line on when that might happen.

Groupon went public last week and after a hot opening of $30, its stock dipped back to reality a day later.

San Francisco-based social gaming company Zynga is largely expected to be the next popular startup to go public.
 

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