Groupon at Nasdaq
Employees and guests of Groupon ring the opening bell in celebration of the company's IPO at the Nasdaq Market in New York. The company's stock price had been sinking since the IPO, but Groupon shares jumped almost six percent Wednesday on news that holiday sales were strong. Reuters

Groupon Inc. shares are on the move Wednesday, up almost six percent, after the company said its Thanksgiving holiday sales were up more than 500 percent compared to the year before. Chicago-based Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) emerged from its post-IPO quiet period and company CEO Andrew Mason shared the good news.

Mason said Groupon sold more than national 650,000 holiday deals beginning Black Friday, the busy shopping day which falls after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday, a popular online shopping deals day that falls two days later. Mason announced the news in a blog post on Wednesday.

Shares of Groupon Inc. traded Wednesday before noon Eastern Time at $16.95, up 94 cents, or 5.95 percent. Shares had been up almost seven percent early in the trading day.

Our IPO process was a wild ride, but we're excited to get back to business and are focused squarely on the future, Mason wrote in his blog post. We're back to communicating like a normal company again...well, as normal as we can muster at Groupon.

The market momentum on Wednesday was good news for Groupon investors, considering company shares had fallen by almost half since reaching a high of $31.14 soon after the IPO was launched Nov. 4. Groupon is the largest daily social deal company, and it is known for consistently offering the lowest priced deals on the Internet. Groupon has also faced scrutiny, however, that it's growth and profit targets may be too ambitious.

LivingSocial, the next biggest daily social deal competitor to Groupon, offered more than 20 deals with national retailers during the Black Friday shopping period, according to Reuters, and that company was on pace to sell as many as 325,000 holiday deals.

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