IB TIMES - May 22 - Certain Groupon customers, who paid for a deal between Nov. 1 '08 - Dec 1, '11, are entitled to part of the $8.5M in damages that have been awarded as part of a class-action lawsuit. Plaintiffs claimed that Groupon Vouchers contained expiration dates and other restrictions in violation of federal and state law. The customers will receive a Settlement Voucher to redeem unused Groupon vouchers purchased in that period.
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Groupon Launches New Selling App
BAKERYINFO - May 15 - Called Groupon Scheduler, the software improves the visibility and management of merchant partners’ schedules and allows these business owners to set up an appointment calendar covering all their staff, services and locations.
Groupon’s Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates
TECH CRUNCH - May 15 - Groupon made $559.3M in revenue during the Q1 2012, up 89% YOY. The total amount of money it collected from customers for Groupons sold increased 103% from $668.2M in the same quarter last year to $1.35 billion in Q1 2012. Groupon still reported a net loss of $0.02 per share. For the next quarter, Groupon expects revenue to be between $550 and $590M.The stock is now up more than 17.76% in after-hours trading.
Groupon Rewards Expanding To Become National
CHICAGO TRIBUNE - May 10 - Groupon is expanding nationwide a loyalty program for merchants. The initiative, called Groupon Rewards, debuted in Philadelphia late last year. It is the company's first official loyalty program and helps address a common business concern: how to retain customers attracted by a daily deal. Consumers participate in the program by opting in once and putting a debit or credit card on file with Groupon. An automated system tracks spending on that card and unlocks the reward voucher when the goal is hit.
by Peter Frost and Wailin Wong
See full article at Chicago Tribune
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason: 'This Business Is A Daily Street Fight'
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - May 6 - Groupon CEO Andrew Mason explains how he plans to improve the company and reverse a sinking share price. The share price closed on Friday at a record low – falling to $9.97 a share from highs of $26. Business owners have complained that dealing with this baby-faced phenomenon has almost led to their company's collapse. One owner of a British cupcake business was obliged to stay up all night baking just to keep up with customer demand created by a "daily deal". Groupon, like many new technology companies, is a Marmite proposition. The critics really do not like it. They point to the accounting problems, the falling share price, the 31-year-old Mr Mason himself (not experienced enough) and a business model that many say is built on shaky foundations. The company needs to spend so much money on marketing to acquire new customers, the critics argue, that profits will be hard to come by. It is a money-burning machine. From a standing start three years ago, it now reports $500M (£309m) revenues a quarter and insists it will be in profit within two years. Three and a half years ago, Groupon's total employee count numbered five and it operated in US only. Now it has ~10K employees across 48 countries. In Mason's eyes, Groupon wants to be to local commerce what Google is to search. At present, the main driver of Groupon's business is email, sent to subscribers with the deals of the day. Groupon is now looking at personalisation of that email service and developing its mobile service, called Groupon Now, to support its mega-growth. Groupon keeps the proceeds of any discount coupons sold which are then not used. Mason says the company is sensitive to cost and that the 50/50 split is only a starting point. Profitability will come, he says. The cash burn-through for marketing will be decreased.
Groupon Grew Too Big, Too Fast
CNBC - May 2 - On Monday, Groupon announced that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and venture capitalist Kevin Efrusy were leaving the board. American Express’ CFO Daniel Henry and a Deloitte Vice Chairman Robert Bass will take their places and also serve on company’s audit committee. “Board members change sometimes, but very rarely do they change so soon after a company goes public,” said Jordan Rohan, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. “I think this is a good move for Groupon but probably only move one out of several moves to restore confidence,” he said. “What we have here is a company that probably came public a bit too early — before the business model was tight,” he said. Rohan does not see any reason that the stock would rise ahead of its June 2 lock-up expiration for insider selling. He called Groupon “a defenseless stock, which can only really go down.”
Groupon Strikes Trouble While Local Australian Deal Sites Win Business.
THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS MAGAZINE - Apr 30 - Groupon Worldwide is in trouble for many reasons including a report in UAE media today about non delivery of products. In Australia, US owned Groupon and Living Social continue to struggle for profitability in contrast to the largest wholly Australian owned group buying sites, like Deals.com.au and Scoopon. Last week, DEALS.com.au announced a record profit for the March Quarter. Groupon’s problems are largely centred around their struggling overseas divisions. Its Chinese joint venture with Tencent is understood to be close to collapse.
See full article at The International News Magazine
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Groupon Appoints Kal Raman As SVP, Americas
BUSINESSWIRE - Apr 29 - Kal Raman will assume the role of SVP, Americas. Raman will oversee the company’s operations in ten countries in North, Latin and South Americas and will be based in Groupon’s corporate headquarters in Chicago. Raman’s career spans more than 20 years in technology and retail, most recently consulting as GM of Global Fulfillment at eBay. Raman served as CEO of GlobalScholar, a leader in enterprise software to K-12 public schools, and Senior VP at Amazon with responsibility for driving its global non-media business for retailers and sellers. In addition, he led Amazon’s retail technology and marketing units. Prior to Amazon, Kal was CEO of drugstore.com where he joined as CIO following seven years at Wal-Mart, where he served in numerous management roles.
Flash Sale Sites Get A Makeover
CNN MONEY - Apr 27 - Daily deal and flash-sale websites broke new ground by offering steep discounts for a limited time only. Spending on flash sales rose 21% last year, according to American Express Business Insights, which tracks the spending habits of its 90 million cardholders. While that's still strong growth, it's a far cry from the 92% gain these sales saw a year earlier. And in just the last few months, there's been a decline in traffic to the sites offering these deals, according to ComScore. Traffic to Gilt Groupe, which sells high-end clothing and accessories, has fallen 9% since the start of 2012 while Groupon's traffic has declined 17%. Big players like Groupon have added new categories, including Getaways and Goods, for deals on travel and merchandise. Home furnishings flash sale site One Kings Lane recently announced the addition of Vintage & Market Finds, where a selection of marked-down furniture, accessories and art are available for five days at a time as opposed to its usual 72-hour timeframe and new items are added daily. "Consumers love it when you keep it fresh," said Doug Mack, One Kings Lane's CEO.
Groupon Shares Rise On Analyst Upgrade
ASSOCIATED PRESS - Apr 24 - Groupon shares rose ~5% Monday after an analyst upgraded his rating on the stock, saying a selloff that caused the shares to fall to nearly half their IPO price has finally made them attractive. Evercore Partners analyst Ken Sena said in a note Monday that at ~$11, the shares are now 10 times his 2013 estimate for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. He raised his rating to "Overweight" from "Equal Weight." The company as a whole is now valued just slightly higher than the $6 billion that Google reportedly offered to pay for the online discounter in December 2010, he said. Groupon has said it will post revenue of $510-$550M.
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