Textbook Rental Firm Chegg Selects Banks for IPO

Textbook rental company Chegg has selected two banks to lead an initial public offering, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The Santa Clara, California-based company has picked JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp , the sources said. The offering could raise $200 million, one of the sources said.

JPMorgan and Bank of America declined to comment. Chegg could not be reached for comment.

Launched nationally in 2007, Chegg has raised more than $200 million in venture funding and debt. Its investors include Insight Venture Partners, Foundation Capital, Gabriel Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company plants a tree for every textbook it rents or sells and has planted more than 5 million trees to date, according to its website.

Chegg, originally called "the Netflix for textbooks," started life as a website that allowed college students to save money on expensive text books by renting them.

Under former Yahoo! Inc executive Dan Rosensweig, the company in recent years has built a broader online education platform that supports activities such as homework note-sharing, class planning, finding professors and tutors, and even recruiting for athletics.

One question hanging over an IPO of Chegg is whether the company will be valued as a new type of education-oriented professional network, such as LinkedIn .

(Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York and Alistair Barr in San Francisco; editing by John Wallace)