Online discount coupon provider Groupon Inc is working toward a potential public offering of its common shares by the end of 2011, the New York Times said, citing people briefed on the matter.

Groupon, the fast-growing online coupon seller, said on Tuesday it has been authorized to raise up to $950 million in what would be the biggest round of equity financing by any company since Pixar in 1995.

The company said in a filing with the state of Delaware that it intended to sell shares at $31.59 each.

The tech startup, which had recently spurned a $6 billion takeover bid from Google, has attracted funding from several big institutional investors including Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley, the newspaper said.

Groupon could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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