• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 28, 2010

Just weeks after rejecting Google's $6 billion buyout offer as too low, group discount juggernaut Groupon may raise up to $950 million by selling as many as 30 million preferred shares, according to a filing with the state of Delaware first reported by VC Experts and cited by the AP on Tuesday evening.

The amendment to the certificate of incorporation for Delaware, originally filed on December 17, disclosed that Groupon's board of directors had approved the possible sale of millions of Series G preferred stock at a price of $31.59. According to VC Experts, the company is expected to file another Form D, disclosing the actual amount of stock to be sold, sometime next week.

The Series G funding would follow a previous Series F round in April of this year, which raised $135 million through stock sales to investors led by Digital Sky Technologies. That round of funding was executed at $32.12 per share, or about 1.7% above the price in this round. The company is authorized to issue up to 45.4 million preferred shares, according to the filing. So far, in funding rounds A-F, the company has issued just over 15.36 million shares of preferred stock.

The $950 million figure would imply a total value for the company of about $6.4 billion, VC Experts reported -- just north of Google's offer. However, the sale of a limited number of shares would have the obvious advantage of preserving the company's autonomy.

In addition to authorizing the sale of preferred shares, the Delaware filing also says the board approved increasing the total number of common voting shares in the company to 250 million; VC Experts opined that the company's valuation could climb as high as $7.8 billion if all these common shares were actually issued. The company may also issue up to 50 million common non-voting shares, for a total 300 million common shares.