Groupon Loses COO, Drastically Cuts Reported Revenue 131
itwbennett writes "Groupon COO Margo Georgiadis has quit after just 5 months on the job and is returning to Google to be the company's president for the Americas. Groupon's founder, Andrew Mason, wrote in a blog post that the company has undergone a reorganization with Georgiadis' departure, and now sales, channels, international and marketing will report directly to him. In other bad Groupon news, the company revealed in an SEC filing Friday that it was reporting revenue before it paid fees to merchants using Groupon. 'The effect of the correction resulted in a reduction of previously reported revenues and corresponding reductions in cost of revenue in those periods,' according to the filing."
Re:Half of $750 Million is Still Some Money ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess that's only if you find them to be disingenuous enough not to chase their adjusted revenues of US$312.9 million with an investment. What the article seems to be ignoring is that Groupon is still turning a profit.
But as an investor, why would you trust these guys to use your investment wisely?
Where Did Grouponâ(TM)s Billion Dollars Go? [allthingsd.com]
"Groupon raised a total of $946 million in two funding rounds last winter. It kept $136 million of it help run the money-losing company. The remaining $810 million was paid out, via stock purchases, to CEO Andrew Mason and some of his backers, including Eric Lefkofsky, and, notably, the Samwer brothers, who sold their CityDeal company to Groupon in 2010."
Do you want to be the sucker left holding the empty bag at the end?
Re:Never used Groupon (Score:5, Interesting)
Thing is, those websites (and Groupon in particular) are getting a bit of a reputation.
Local business gets approached by Groupon. The deal is: make a fantastic offer (around 70% off); of the remaining 30% you charge, you keep half, Groupon keep half.
In theory, you turn the influx of customers (that you're heavily subsidising) into regulars. In practise, lots of businesses have found the sort of customer who comes in on a Groupon deal is the sort of customer who never under any circumstances would even dream of coming back at full price.