Groupon Goes Public: Tech Weekly Recap

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Groupon (GRPN) made its eagerly anticipated debut as a public company on Friday, enjoying a pop as investors bought into its IPO.

Despite recent criticism of Groupon's accounting and concerns about the firm's ability to turn a long-term profit, the shares soared 40% at market open.

Groupon had priced its offering at $20 late on Thursday, above the range of $16 to $18 it had initially sought. The offering valued the company at nearly $13 billion.

Groupon's stock opened at $28 a share on the Nasdaq. The shares then hit a high of $31.14 during the day's trading and eventually closed at $26.11, a 30.55% hike on the offering price.

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One of the biggest challenges looming on the horizon for the newly public company, however, is increased competition from the likes of Google (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN) and LivingSocial, as well as a slew of smaller firms. Groupon has also gone public at a time of uncertainty in the global economy.

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The worlds of technology and entertainment combined in somewhat bizarre fashion on Tuesday when Pete Townshend took a big swing at Apple (AAPL).

Speaking at a lecture organized by the BBC, The Who guitarist described Apple's iTunes as a "digital vampire" that "bleeds" new artists instead of helping them build their careers.

The iconic musician urged Apple to help nurture emerging artists by providing A&R services, as well as computer hardware and music software.

Apple shares ended the week down $2.83, or 0.7%, at $400.24.

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HP (HPQ), after spending the last few months frightening the life out of investors, took a big step in the right direction on Tuesday by becoming the first major server player to support ARM's (ARMH) low-power chips.

A semiconductor star, ARM's technology has typically been found in smartphones and tablets, although HP will use the chips within a soon-to-be-launched server technology called Redstone.

HP's stock closed up 13 cents, or 0.48%, at $26.97 on Friday.

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