Exclusive: Groupon Pushed for IPO Filing This Week (With or Without Bankers' Help!)

According to sources close to the situation, social buying phenom Groupon was pressing to file for its expected IPO as soon as this week, even before its bankers had a chance to complexify the situation.

Sources said CEO Andrew Mason and others at the company were pushing for a filing immediately, but that the Chicago start-up has decided to wait a bit–though not long–to get all its investment banking ducks in a row.

Those financial suits are expected to be, said sources, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who will co-lead the offering, as has been widely reported.

“It was a bit of a fire drill,” said one person close to the situation.

Well, en fuego suits Groupon, which is one of the hottest digital companies of late.

That includes the pricing of the offering. An IPO is likely to aim to value the company at upwards of $15 billion.

It’s a huge and fast win for Groupon, which was founded in late 2008.

In its short life, Groupon has grown to a global workforce of 6,000 with tens of millions of customers buying its discounted offerings for goods and services.

It has also garnered a series of huge fundings from top VCs, including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners and Russia’s DST.

Even more, it turned down a $6 billion offer from Google, which had been preceded by a $4 billion one from Yahoo.

No wonder the quirky Mason–who is well known to be wary of Wall Street machinations–wants to rush out of the gate. After all, who knows what happens next?