Category Archives: groupon

Quick: How many people bought a Groupon in the third quarter? The obvious, easy answer based on the latest S-1 is 29.5 million. That’s what Reuters wrote yesterday. (They rounded up to 30 million.) But that number is wrong. What … Continue reading →

Through much of its roadshow presentation, Groupon tries to make the claim that it’s a technology company. At one point, CEO Andrew Mason bizarrely uses a cyborg to illustrate how much the company is about technology. From a company perspective, … Continue reading →

I’m sometimes asked if I ghost write under other names or post comments anonymously about Groupon. I do not. Everything I’ve written about Groupon and the daily deals space has been posted under my name. I do, however, answer a … Continue reading →

Groupon finally announced the details of its much awaited IPO. The company seeks a valuation that is between 1/3 and 1/2 of what was rumored when its first S-1 was published in June. Although the numbers are on the surface … Continue reading →

When I first started writing about Groupon more than four months ago, my friend Semil asked me “Why are you the only one saying these things?” I explained that it call came down to incentives. Consider the various people involved … Continue reading →

I’ve written quite a bit about how bad a deal running Groupons is for many businesses, including the extremely lopsided merchant agreement and the potential for Groupon to damage businesses in the long term by destroying Yelp ratings. It occurred … Continue reading →

The third amendment to Groupon’s S-1 shows significant changes. Although the prospectus is cleaner and better reflects the company’s financial position, it brings to light more bad news about an already troubled offering. The most significant new issue I see … Continue reading →