GRPN : downgraded to sell from neutral at Goldman

Ticker: GRPN

 

Groupon (GRPN) : 3-year performance

Ticker: GRPN

monthly

Groupon (GRPN) reported Q4 earnings Thursday 20 February 2014

Ticker: GRPN

• Beat quarterly EPS by $0.02 ($0.04 ex items vs $0.02 estimate), revs rose 20.4% yoy to $768.4 mln vs $718.73 mln estimate; sees Q1 EPS of -$0.04 to $0.02 ex items vs $0.06 estimate, revs of $710-760 mln vs $681.81 mln estimate; downgraded at RBC Capital Markets.
• Two acquisitions last month will hurt profit by $20 million this quarter, Groupon said yesterday after the markets closed. That impact, plus $25 million in additional expenses for marketing and growth initiatives, will lead to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $20 million to $40 million, Groupon said. Analysts had estimated $96 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Daily deals company Groupon's (GRPN) Q1 sales guidance blew away analyst expectations, but the company said its full-year earnings would be only "slightly above" 2013 levels, sending the stock plummeting Friday.

The Chicago-based company late Thursday said it expects current-quarter sales of $710 million to $760 million, or $735 million at the midpoint. Analysts had been modeling $669 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

But the company says EBITDA — or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — will suffer as the company integrates recent acquisitions and boosts marketing spending.

Groupon late Thursday said Q4 sales rose 20% from the year-earlier quarter, to $768.4 million, beating views of $718 million.

EPS ex items was 4 cents, swinging from a 1-cent loss and beating expectations for 2 cents.

Andrew Mason unloads more than half of Groupon (GRPN) stake

Ticker: GRPN

Groupon Inc. co-founder Andrew Mason sold more than half his stock in the company since being forced out as CEO nearly a year ago.

Mr. Mason holds 18 million shares of Groupon common stock, down from 45.6 million shares at the end of 2012, according to securities documents disclosed today. Mr. Mason now owns about 3 percent of Groupon's stock, compared with 7 percent a year ago. His remaining holdings are worth $200 million at current prices. Groupon's stock price more than doubled since Mr. Mason departed Feb. 28.

Mr. Mason, who has moved the San Francisco area, still holds 999,984 shares of Class B stock that have special voting rights. Class B stock grants shareholders 150 votes per share, versus one per share for common stock.

Co-founders Eric Lefkofsky, who replaced Mr. Mason as Groupon CEO, and Brad Keywell, also hold Class B shares. Collectively, Messrs. Mason, Lefkofsky and Keywell have control over 36 percent of Groupon voting rights. When Mr. Mason left the company, he was no longer bound by restrictions that govern when insiders can sell stock.

Mr. Mason isn't the only Groupon insider who sold shares as the stock price recovered (although it still hasn't returned to its $20 IPO price). His co-founders also have been selling, though not as much.

Groupon (GRPN) buys TicketMonster from LivingSocial.com

Ticker: GRPN
Daily-deals company LivingSocial.com is taking Groupon Inc.'s stock straight to the bank.

Yesterday Groupon closed its deal to buy TicketMonster, a South Korean deal site, from rival LivingSocial for $260 million in stock and cash.  It paid LivingSocial $100 million in cash and $160 million in stock for the business. LivingSocial quickly announced its plans to sell all of its 13.8 million shares, worth about $166.6 million, according to a securities filing.

That's according to a regulatory filing from Groupon on Friday. The Chicago company said that it will not receive any proceeds from LivingSocial's stock offering. LivingSocial declined to comment on the stock sale.

That's already paying off for LivingSocial — the value of its shares rose $2.8 million as Groupon's stock climbed above $12 today.

But it's an even better deal for Groupon. Having your primary competitor as your 13th-largest shareholder is never a good thing.

Groupon Fires CEO Andrew Mason

Ticker: GRPN

"After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today." -Andrew Mason

<<click to enlarge>>

Twenty-four hours after reporting disappointing first-quarter earnings (a move that sent its stock down more than 25% in after-hours), Groupon announced Thursday afternoon that co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason will no longer hold the top post at the company.

Groupon Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis will assume leadership of the four-and-a-half-year-old daily deals business while its board of directors seeks out a new chief executive, according to a release issued by the company.

Groupon shares slump as CEO stays put

Ticker: GRPN

Groupon Inc.'s shares fell more than 10 percent, a day after the online daily deals company's board backed founder-CEO Andrew Mason, disappointing investors who hoped for a leadership change.

The company's shares, which have lost about 85 percent of their value since Groupon's high-profile Wall Street debut last year, were down more than 10 percent late in the trading day Friday, at $4.07.

The five-year-old company, known for transforming local business advertising by marketing internet discounts on everything from spa treatments to dining, has seen its business cooling since it debuted on the Nasdaq at $28 per share.

Much of the blame has fallen on Mason. The stock surged 12 percent on Wednesday, when he said he would fire himself if needed.

However, analysts reckon Mason still has the vision to grow the business.

"I can see that he still has a few arrows left in his quiver to generate additional value forGroupon," analyst Daniel Kurnos from the Benchmark Co. said.

He pointed to the faith that investors like Tiger Global Management are showing in the daily deals model.
Tiger Global, a technology-focused hedge fund, disclosed an about 10 percent stake inGroupon earlier this month. Its other recent bets include Facebook Inc and Amazon Inc.

"(Mason) has done a great job to grow the company to this point, and I think that there is a path to profitability for them if they can continue to execute on the Groupon goods side of the business and if the deals model is sustainable," Kurnos said.

B. Riley & Co analyst Sameet Sinha said investors may be looking for an outsider to come in and take a fresh look at the business but that the board is looking for help closer home.

"What Andrew is doing is that he is creating a deep bench of executives who will be able to run the company, execute and operate, while he focuses on the higher level stuff," he said.

"That's what the plan is and that's the reason why the board is giving (Mason) room to operate it."

Groupon (GRPN) reported earnings on 8 Nov 2012

 Ticker: GRPN

Groupon sounded a discouraging note for investors Thursday with a quarterly report indicating a narrower loss but slower revenue growth for the daily deals website. Shares tumbled 16% to $3.31 after hours.

Groupon stock plunged 16 percent in after-hours trading after the company's third-quarter earnings missed Wall Street forecasts.

Groupon reported $568.6 million in revenue, below the analyst target of $592 million. It reported a loss of $3 million, or breakeven per share. Excluding stock-option and other costs, it met analysts' forecasts' of 3 cents per share.
Groupon shares hit a new low of $3.30 per share in after-hours trading, continuing a slide.
Among the trouble spots in Groupon's financials:

Cash from operations fell by one-third to $42.1 million from $64.4 million a year ago.
International revenue declined for the first time, slipping to $277 million, down from $308.2 million in the previous quarter.

Gross billings, or the total value of goods and services sold by Groupon before it splits the take with merchants, fell from second-quarter levels. It was the second straight quarter of decline, reflecting increased reliance on lower-priced products and services.

Groupon said that exchange rates were a major culprit. Without those problems, Groupon's revenue would have been $594.6 million, ahead of forecasts, and gross billings would have been higher.
Groupon forecasts revenue between $625 million and $675 million, slightly above Wall Street's average forecast of $634 million. But income from operations is expected to fall to between $0 and $20 million, down from the $25 million operating profit in the third quarter.

Groupon's stock has been falling since March, when it revised financials and warned of accounting problems.
Groupon laid off about 80 people in sales this week, as it starts implementing automation strategies previously laid out by Kal Raman, the company's new senior vice-president for sales and global operations.
The layoffs first were reported by Business Insider's Henry Blodget early Thursday afternoon.

“Groupon announced several months ago it would be using technology to increase productivity through automation,” a spokeswoman says. “We will always aim to optimize business operations wherever opportunities are identified.”

As of June 30, Groupon had about 1,120 sales staff in North America, most of them based in Chicago. Groupon declined to say where the laid-off employees are located.

Groupon has been cutting sales staff for three quarters, from a peak of 5,735 to 5,087 as of Sept. 30. That's down 500 in the past quarter, not including Thursday's cutbacks. Groupon's labor-intensive sales model has been viewed as a negative by many investors.
Mutual funds associated with Fidelity Investments, which owned 12.7 million shares when the company went public, now hold just 1 million shares after dumping 8.5 million in August, according to data from Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. The data only goes through August, when Groupon shares still were trading above $4. The fund did not return calls for comment.

Various T. Rowe Price funds loaded up on Groupon during the third quarter ended Sept. 30, adding 7 million shares, a 40 percent boost. The Baltimore-based fund company has doubled down on Groupon since the IPO a year ago, boosting total holdings to 24.8 million shares. The company did not return calls for comment.

American Funds boosted its holdings 14.6 percent in the third quarter, scooping up 3.8 million shares. The funds, run by Los Angeles-based Capital Group Cos., now hold 30.1 million shares, making it one of the 10 largest investors. The company declined to comment.

With its stock price flagging below $5 per share, and a total market value below $3 billion, Groupon faces several challenges on the stock front. It's a buzzkill for employees who had visions of riches when the stock went public at $20. And stocks below $5 have a harder time attracting mutual funds, said Morningstar analyst Mike Rawson. “It's psychological for employees,” he said. “Some funds have an unofficial rule of thumb not to invest in stocks under $5.”

** day after earnings **

What we've learned a year after Groupon's IPO

Ticker: GRPN
A year ago this weekend, Groupon went public.

• It priced at $20 a share, opened at $28, and then peaked around $30.
• Since then, it has done nothing but collapse. This week, Groupon’s stock crashed through $4 a share for the first time, setting a new all-time low.
• The company is now valued at about $2.5 billion.
• That’s one-tenth the value that some investment bankers told Groupon it was worth in the lead-up to the IPO.
• It’s down 80% from the IPO price and 85% from the first day’s opening price.

By Joseph B. Cahill

Can you believe it only has been a year since Groupon Inc.'s IPO? Seems more like 10, given how thoroughly the company has transformed from startup superstar to Wall Street has-been.

As Groupon's shares sank as much as 79 percent from the IPO price of $20—it closed at $4.47 today—expectations surrounding the daily-deal company collapsed, too. With the Nov. 4 anniversary of Groupon's IPO approaching, it's time to examine the lessons it holds for all those who expected things to be so much better for the Chicago company.

IPO investors: Be careful what you wish for. Many of you begged your brokers for a piece of the hottest IPO of the year. Instead of badgering your broker, you should have pored over Groupon's prospectus, which contained plenty of red flags that might have dampened your enthusiasm—and saved you money.

Groupon employees: The fun stops when trading starts. After a company goes public, it starts to regard employees not so much as assets to be nurtured as costs to be curtailed. Pressure to meet quarterly earnings expectations leads to many not-fun changes, like tougher performance standards, stingier compensation policies and layoffs when profits start to sag.

Andrew Mason: Shtick isn't a management style. The Groupon CEO's unconventional antics helped fuel the perception that he had discovered a better way to build a business. But Groupon's slowing growth and poor profitability since the IPO shattered that illusion, replacing it with doubts about Mr. Mason's maturity and ability to manage a business with 12,000 employees in 48 countries. Recent attempts to look more serious — like donning horn-rimmed glasses — won't dispel those doubts. Only a solid run of revenue growth and rising profits will convince Wall Street that Mr. Mason is a bankable chief executive.

Eric Lefkofsky: Talking up your company while the SEC is reviewing its registration statement doesn't only anger the regulators. The Groupon chairman and co-founder's public assurance that the company would be “wildly profitable” raised expectations Groupon couldn't possibly meet, damaging its credibility in the stock market. Similarly, the creative accounting metrics Groupon peddled only highlighted its lack of basic profits.
Venture capitalists: Do your due diligence. The rush by supposedly sophisticated VC firms to shower money on Groupon shows how so-called smart money can succumb to herd mentality. All the questions about Groupon's accounting, growth rate and profitability that came up after the IPO are the kinds of issues these firms should have unearthed upfront. Instead, some leapt aboard as Groupon taxied down the IPO runway, pumping in $950 million without asking any questions — most of which went into the pockets of Groupon co-founders Messrs. Lefkofsky and Mason, Brad Keywell and other insiders.

Chicago and the local tech community: It's a bad idea to link yourselves too closely with any single company. Mayoral photo ops at Groupon's Near North Side headquarters, along with widespread cheerleading by local officials and business leaders, helped make Groupon the avatar of Chicago's tech scene. That was great when the company's rise seemed to signal Chicago's arrival as a technology hotbed. But its fall from grace revives old questions about the city's ability to produce viable tech firms.

Just about everybody: Groupon's stunning reversal proves that your mother was right when she told you anything that seems too good to be true probably is. Its rise from nothing to the cover of Forbes in less than two years should have generated more skepticism. But the cheering drowned out the few killjoy questions about revenue and profit.

Groupon eventually may build a profitable business that grows fast enough to justify investing in it. But it's clearly not the company so many thought it was a year ago.

Groupon names KPMG veteran its chief accounting officer

Groupon Inc. hired a veteran of accounting giant KPMG LLP as its chief accounting officer, the company said today.

Brian Stevens takes the job immediately and will report to Chief Financial Officer Jason Child, Chicago-based Groupon said. He spent 16 years with KPMG, working as an audit partner from audit partner from October 2007 through August, according to a news release.

Joe Del Preto will remain vice-president and global controller and report to Mr. Stevens, Groupon said.
Mr. Child recently told Crain's he was close to hiring a chief accounting officer.

Mr. Stevens is expected to beef up the accounting team at a company that has come under fire for weak bookkeeping. Just months after it went public, Groupon had to revise its first quarterly financials after underestimating the level of reserves required for refunds, which rose sharply amid an increase in high-ticket offers such as Lasik surgery. The company's auditors also warned that Groupon's financial controls had material weakness, starting a sharp decline in the stock that continues as confidence in management has waned.

The shares now trade at just over $4 per share, compared with its $20 IPO price.

Groupon faces a year-end deadline for auditors for sign off on its internal financial financial controls, as required by Sarbanes-Oxley.

KPMG was the firm Groupon hired to help get its financial controls up to par.
Mr. Stevens and his family will move to Chicago soon from Connecticut, according to a Groupon spokeswoman.

Bought GRPN before earnings (today after market close)

Ticker: GRPN
After hours: Groupon (GRPN) rallied 13% to $13.23. The company posted a first-quarter profit of 2 cents a share, exceeding the average analyst estimate of 1 cent. The Chicago-based company also forecast revenue in the second quarter will be as much as $590 million, beating the $558.7 million projected by analysts.

** weekly **

SEC conducting preliminary Groupon probe

(Crain's) — The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal inquiry into Groupon Inc.'s accounting issues that caused it to restate fourth-quarter results.

The SEC's probe is preliminary, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Groupon said the revision, which reduced fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, was caused by the need for higher reserves for refunds on deals that have higher price tags, such as Lasik eye surgery and laser hair removal.

The company didn't provide additional details on how much the total refunds were compared with its reserves at the time.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a high number of refunds began showing up in January and were disclosed to top management by the company's chief accounting officer in February.

The company 's auditors, Ernst & Young LLP, said it found Groupon had a material weakness in its internal accounting and financial controls.

The revelations are causing big problems for Groupon, which earned a reputation for aggressive accounting after a lengthy battle with the SEC during its IPO preparation that caused it to revise financial results before going public. It also brought criticism of Chief Financial Officer Jason Child.

Its stock has fallen 16 percent since Friday and is trading near its lowest point.

Groupon restates Q4 earnings and drops 6% after hours

(Crain's) — Groupon Inc. restated its fourth-quarter earnings today and disclosed in its annual report that auditors issued a statement that the company had material weakness in its internal controls.

The company said the revisions didn't change its cash flow.

Groupon's stock fell $1.23, or 6.7 percent, to $17.15 in after-hours trading.

It said the revision, which reduced fourth-quarter operating income by $30 million, was caused by the need for higher reserves for deals with higher prices that have higher refund rates than its typical daily deals.

Groupon now says it lost $65.4 million in the fourth quarter, compared with its original loss of $42.7 million. Its loss from operations was unchanged at $15 million.

"We remain confident in the fundamentals of our business, as our performance continues to highlight the value that we provide to customers and merchants," said Jason Child, Chicago-based Groupon's chief financial officer.

Groupon also issued a first-quarter forecast for revenue of $510 million to $550 million, slightly below analyst forecasts of $526 million to $550 million. The company expects income from operations of $15 million to $35 million.

Today's restatement is the latest accounting problem for Groupon, which had to revise its financials during the runup to its IPO last fall.

The company's use of an unconventional profit measure and an aggressive definition of accounting for revenue — including the amount of its daily deals shared with merchants — drew fire from the Securities and Exchange Commission and were changed before the company went public.

** chart at close **

Groupon reports losing money despite revenue surge; stock plunges A/H

Groupon Inc. stock plunged almost 10 percent in after-market trading after the company reported it lost $42.7 million in its fourth quarter despite a sharp increase in revenue.

The Chicago-based online coupon company said that for the three months that ended Dec. 31, the net loss attributable to common stockholders was 8 cents per share compared with $1.08 a share for the previous fourth quarter.

Revenue grew to $506.5 million for the quarter, a 194 percent increase from the $172.2 million in sales it saw the previous fourth quarter.

** daily ** A/H

** weekly ** A/H

Groupon shares were trading at $22.14, down 9.9 percent, in after-hours trading, after ending the regular market day up 1.6 percent.

“Groupon had a strong fourth quarter and we finished 2011 having helped 250,000 local merchants across 47 countries grow their businesses while saving Groupon customers billions of dollars,” Andrew Mason, CEO and co-Founder of Groupon, said in a press release. “We will continue to invest in new services and tools that help our merchant partners be more successful and drive local commerce around the world.”

Recent tech IPO performance

Groupon (GRPN) looks good again

*** daily **

*** weekly ***

Groupon (GRPN) - profile

A controversial and unprofitable daily-deals and coupon website. Started trading on the NASDAQ on November 4, 2011 under the symbol GRPN.

• Groupon raised $700 million after increasing the size of its initial public offering, becoming the largest IPO by an Internet company since Google Inc raised $1.7 billion in 2004.
• The company is now worth about $80 billion.
• The underwriters were Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse
• Filed for a $750 million IPO on June 1, 2011, originally planed to debut mid to late September.
• Andrew Mason, the chief executive and founder of Groupon, is worth $2 billion less than Eric Lefkofsky (Groupon's largest shareholder and chairman), the man who financed Groupon’s start. Lefkofsky  has a 22% stake in the company.  The other co-founders include Andrew Mason (8% stake), and Bradley Keywell (7% stake),
• Groupon has 10,000 employees and has offered over 1,000 daily deals to 150 million subscribers across 46 countries, and has sold over 70 million Groupons.
• Groupon deals can be irresistible to customers. The merchant typically agrees to discount a product or service by 50 to 90 percent. Groupon then sells the coupons via its e-mail distribution list. Usually a minimum number of people have to buy the offer before the deal “tips” and becomes redeemable. Groupon and the merchant then split the revenue from the deal 50–50. They both keep the money even if the customer never redeems the voucher. An estimated 20 percent of Groupons don’t get used, which amounts to free revenue for local merchants.

• Headquarters in Chicago; company started in 2008; the fastest growing company ever
• Sold 30 million shares (or about 5%) at $16 to $18 apiece, out of the 630.4 million shares that will be outstanding after the offering. At the midpoint of the price range, Groupon would be valued at $10.8 billion.
• The low-float approach, dubbed "slim to win," involves selling a sliver of a company's outstanding shares in an effort to create an artificial scarcity once the shares begin trading. It was most recently employed by LinkedIn (ticker: LNKD) and Zillow (Z), whose shares rose sharply immediately after their IPOs, and which still trade comfortably above their IPO prices.
• Price range of between $16 and $18 per share would value the daily deals company at $10.1 billion to $11.4 billion. Early buzz had swirled around a valuation as high as $30 billion
• Plans to raise between $480 million and $540 million, a more modest goal than its original plan of $750 million
• Founded in 2008 by Andrew Mason, Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell
• Sales in 2010 surged to $312.9 million from $14.5 million the previous year, a growth rate so fast that Google offered to buy the company for $6 billion last year. Groupon rejected the deal, choosing instead to raise $950 million in private capital and stay independent while pushing toward an IPO.
• That strategy came under fire in June, when Groupon filed its prospectus, showing the company had lost $540.2 million in three years and that in the first quarter alone had spent $179.9 million to bring in subscribers.

Andrew Mason, 30-year old Groupon's CEO, once spread a rumor in his office that he owned 20 cats

Cons:

• Unprofitable: Groupon lost $62.3 million in the second quarter, an improvement from the first quarter when it lost $98.3 million.
• Zero barriers to entry; hundreds of competitors, including Living Social, Google (Google Offers), Amazon, AT&T, and The New York Times
• Unique choice of accounting (required a new S-1)
• Business in North American is slowing: revenue per subscriber and revenue per merchant are declining in North America. 
• A $10 billion market value is a lot for a company with no profits and an unproven business model.
• As of June 30, Groupon had $225 million in cash on hand, according to an amended S-1 the daily-deals website filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The problem: The company still owed $392 million to merchants for Groupons that had already been sold and used up by its customers.
• The company had $243.9 million in cash at the end of September and still owed merchants $465.6 million. The 8.4 percent increase in cash from the prior period was outstripped by the rise in marketing costs, which jumped 37 percent to $234.4 million.
• Groupon is more of an advertising company than an Internet company. It has upward of 10,000 employees—about five times that of Facebook—because it needs: an army of salespeople to call on local businesses; customer-service reps; technology staff; plus writers to craft hundreds of catchy pitches a day for the deals e-mailed to most of its 142 million subscribers.
• Groupon faces escalating competition from LivingSocial and Google Inc. (GOOG), which are giving more favorable terms to merchants. That’s led Groupon to accept lower margins to avoid losing business. The amount of billings the company booked as revenue shrank to 37 percent in the third quarter from 42 percent in the prior period and 44 percent in the first quarter. Groupon attributes the lower margins to getting into new products, like travel and event tickets. 
• Groupon’s margins are already being pressured as businesses become savvier at the negotiating table. Instead of making a solid 50 percent on the deals, many of Groupon’s salespeople are being told to accept less favorable margins, in the 35-to-45-percent range. National merchants are now able to negotiate deals in which Groupon’s share is 5 to 25 percent. 

Pros:

• Few companies have grown as rapidly as Groupon. Founded in 2008, the company had 142 million subscribers globally at the end of the third quarter, up from 21 million a year earlier. 
• Nine-month revenues of $1.1 billion were more than seven times the $140 million in the same period of 2010. 
• Much of Groupon's growth this year has come abroad, where it is aggressively expanding.Groupon is growing fast, making it attractive to investors facing a slowdown in economic growth
• In 2010, it featured 66,289 merchants, and in the first 3 months of 2011, it featured 56,781 merchants.
• Its 2010 revenue was $713.4 million compared to $30.5 million in 2009. During the first quarter of 2011, it generated revenue of $644.7 million.

Revenue rose to $878 million in the second quarter compared with $644.7 million in the first quarter and rose more than 900 percent from $87.3 million in the second quarter of 2010, the company reported in the filing.

The numbers show Groupon's growth slowed from the first quarter. Revenue was up 36 percent in the second quarter, below growth of 63 percent in the first quarter.

The number of Groupon subscribers jumped to more than 115 million at the end of the second quarter. But revenue per subscriber fell 12 percent to $8.57 in North America, according to David Sinsky of Yipit, which tracks the daily deal industry.

Forty-six percent of revenue was generated from North America in the first quarter 2011, and 54% was generated from Europe. In May 2010, Groupon acquired CityDeal, which added 1.9 million subscribers as of the date of the acquisition in several major European markets, including London, Berlin and Paris, and ended the year with operations in 38 countries.

Groupon has offered deals involving over 140 different types of businesses, services and activities that fall into six broad categories; the following shows the percentage of deals offered worldwide across those categories during the first quarter of 2011: Health & Beauty: 31%; Food & Drink: 23%; Activities: 15%; Events: 11%; Services: 11%; Retail: 9%.

More about Mason and Groupon

• In 1999, Mason moved to Chicago’s North Shore to attend Northwestern University, where he studied music. (Mason, a pianist from a young age, says that he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming a rock star.)
• Mason graduated from college in 2003 without a clear plan. He took a job as a software developer at InnerWorkings, where he met Eric Lefkofsky, a prominent Chicago investor and businessman. 
• April of 2010: Groupon received a $135 million cash infusion from investors, including Russian Internet billionaire Yuri Milner and several prominent Silicon Valley firms. 
• Mason and his team began snapping up Groupon’s copycat competitors like candy. In June they entered Chile and Brazil. In August they expanded to Russia and Japan. Then Singapore, South Africa, India, the United Arab Emirates, and China. Today, Groupon is in 46 countries and more than 500 cities.
• In Australia a daily-deals company called Scoopon filed for the Groupon trademark and also purchased the Australian Groupon domain name. Mason offered the owner of the company nearly $300,000 for the site and the trademark. Scoopon balked, and Groupon sued. With no other choice, and not wanting to lose the Australia market altogether, Mason decided to launch in Australia under a different name entirely, Stardeals—while Groupon.com.au remained tied up and inactive under unrelated ownership. (The lawsuit is still pending.) Similar scenarios began playing out all over the map.
• Groupon is still working to secure the Chinese version of Groupon.com, currently operating in China under the name GaoPeng. A retired government worker in Bangalore bought the Indian Groupon Web domain and is running a business that looks nearly identical to the U.S. Groupon. In Ireland, Groupon successfully brought charges before the World Intellectual Property Organization to force a subsidiary of the Irish Times Group to give up the Irish version of the Groupon domain name.
• Domain squatting is a common pitfall of the Internet world, but it can be especially problematic with a digital business that is easily replicable.
• In November of 2010, Google made a $6 billion acquisition offer for Groupon.

Groupon billings rose in November as rivals stalled

(Crain's) — Groupon Inc. outperformed its rivals in November, increasing revenue while its closest competitors posted declines.

Chicago-based Groupon's overall billings from its online daily deals rose 6% from October, according to Yipit, a New York-based deal aggregator. That's triple the 2% increase in the overall November billings for the industry in North America.

Billings from LivingSocial.com, the second-largest online coupon provider, fell 5% in November, Yipit said. AmazonLocal's revenue slumped 6%.

Google Inc., which launched its daily-deals product GoogleOffers in June, is enjoying rapid growth. Its billings more than doubled to $3.5 million from $1.4 million in October. Travelzoo, an online-travel site that also offers local deals through a unit based in Chicago, saw its billings jump 44%. (Customers pay for coupons upfront, and the deal providers split revenue with the merchants who provide the goods and services.)

Groupon, which went public in November and hasn't yet reported fourth-quarter results, declined to comment.

Groupon remained the industry giant with $154 million in total November revenue. LivingSocial had $52 million and Travelzoo had $7 million, followed by AmazonLocal at $5.8 million and GoogleOffers at $3.5 million.

Yipit also noted that revenue declined for all deal providers as Thanksgiving approached, highlighting seasonal trends seen over the summer that show online deal sales drop off when subscribers are on vacation. During the week of Thanksgiving, Groupon's billings skidded 46% and LivingSocial's total revenue slid 30% from the previous week, Yipit said.

Daily-deals results also fluctuate wildly when coupon sellers offer nationwide deals that drive unusually high participation. Yipit attributed much of Travelzoo's November spike to a nationwide deal for movie tickets from Fandango. Google Offers also was helped by national deals.

Groupon shares tumble below IPO price on worries of future deals

(Reuters) — Groupon Inc shares fell nearly 7 percent on Tuesday on concern the company may not have as many daily deals to offer as some merchants pull back.

Susquehanna Financial Group and daily deal industry tracking firm Yipit surveyed almost 400 merchants recently about their experiences running daily deals with Groupon , LivingSocial and other providers.

An average of 8 out of 10 merchants enjoyed working with daily deal companies, the survey found.

However, it also found that 52 percent of the surveyed merchants are currently not planning to feature deals in the next six months. Nearly 24 percent of the merchants intend to feature only one deal in the next six months, the poll also found.

Groupon shares closed at $19.27, down 6.5 percent today, below the company's initial public offering price of $20.

Last year, Groupon completed one of the largest Internet IPOs since Google's debut, but the Chicago-based company's business model has been questioned by some analysts.

A crucial part of the company's business involves persuading merchants to run deals and accept the large discounts that are integral to the offers.

"Our proprietary merchant survey highlights concerns of the daily deal sites and early read implies lower usage over the next six months, despite some surprisingly high satisfaction rates," Herman Leung, an analyst at Susquehanna, wrote in a research note detailing the survey results.

Groupon and LivingSocial recently unveiled instant deals, which are location-based offers that are usually run by merchants for a few hours only.

The survey by Susquehanna and Yipit found that only 10 percent of merchants polled have considered running an instant deal with Groupon or LivingSocial.

Groupon (GRPN) puts working today!

see Dec 29 : Groupon (GRPN) looks like a sell today

• GRPN is down 7% while the market is rallying today (+2%) : weekly $20 puts +80%, weekly $19 puts +66%

*** weekly ***