Textbook seller Chegg prices IPO shares at $12.50
Kicking off trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the startup is going public with an offering price that values the company at nearly $1.1 billion.
It appears to be IPO season. Chegg, the online startup that provides both study guides and a service to rent textbooks, announced Tuesday that it priced its initial public offering at $12.50 a share.
This pricing is higher than earlier expectations, which were pegging the share price between $9.50 and $11.50. The price means the company will have raised $187.5 million with its 15 million shares of common stock. This IPO will value the company at just about $1.1 billion.
Chegg is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CHGG on Wednesday, November 13.
The Santa Clara, Calif., company launched eight years ago as an educational textbook rental service but has since morphed into an online learning hub. It offers (digital and printed) textbook rentals and sales, homework assistance, online courses, and scholarship services.
Chegg has 614 employees and also runs a marketing and advertising business. CEO Dan Rosensweig has said he wants to expand the company's services in a market in which Amazon is one of its main competitors.
In the lead-up to Chegg's IPO, it raised millions of dollars from an array of investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Pinnacle Ventures, and Insight Venture Partners. J.P. Morgan and Bank of America led Chegg's offering.
Twitter also just went public. The social network priced its shares at $26 and kicked off trading on the New York Stock Exchange last week. This IPO valued the company at $14.2 billion.