Yelp files for $100M initial public offering

The web industry’s IPO wave is not over yet. Yelp, the San Francisco-based local reviews website, has filed an S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $ 100 million in an initial public offering of its stock.

The filing reveals that Yelp pulls in solid top line sales, but has yet to turn a profit at the bottom line. The company made $ 47.7 million in net revenue in 2010 and reported a net loss of $ 9.56 million for the year.

But despite the lack of profits, Yelp has one major thing going for it that public company investors like to see: Healthy growth. The company’s net revenue for the first nine months of 2011 was $ 58.4 million, representing 80 percent growth from the first nine months of 2010. Its losses are apparently narrowing, as Yelp’s net loss for the first nine months of 2011 was $ 7.6 million.

Headcount-wise, Yelp runs a relatively tight ship: The seven-year-old company has 892 employees worldwide.

For years now Yelp has been vocal about its plans to hold an IPO, and has recently made moves indicating that its planned public offering was imminent. Earlier this summer the company hired Rob Krolik to serve as its chief financial officer; Krolik’s resume includes time as the CFO of Shopping.com where he led the company through its initial public offering and subsequent sale to eBay. As we reported at that time, companies often hire IPO-savvy CFOs in the months leading up to their own stock market debuts.

Investment banks Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Jefferies, Allen & Company, and Oppenheimer & Company are all underwriting the Yelp IPO.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.