Groupon | featured news

Andrew Mason isn’t leaving Groupon empty handed... One thing is crystal clear already: Mason has a tidy nest egg — roughly $260 million — to spend on whatever tropical island he may hit to nurse his wounds, or to splurge on the fat camp he referenced in a letter to employees.

Struggling online deals pioneer Groupon has ousted its quirky founder and CEO Andrew Mason amid worries that people are tiring of the myriad of online restaurant, spa and Botox deals that Groupon built its business on.

Let's get one thing straight: It wasn't Andrew Mason's personality that got him fired as CEO of Groupon today. If the local discounts service were doing well -- and not taking one body blow after another from a Wall Street disappointed with its results and skeptical of its promise -- he would have a job tomorrow morning, and for a long time to come. Mason's penchant for antic behavior that highlighted his immaturity and called into question his seriousness as a leader didn't cause that.

Groupon lost more than a fifth of its value in early trading after reporting a quarterly loss late Wednesday that fueled criticism of the daily-deals site's aggressive growth strategy.

Groupon and its compatriots in the much-hyped daily deals business were supposed to change the very nature of small-business advertising. Instead, it is the daily deal vendors that are racing to change as evidence mounts that their business model is fundamentally flawed.

Groupon’s quarterly loss narrowed as the online-coupon service cut marketing costs but revenue growth continued to slow. Its shares tumbled after hours.

Another day, another low for Groupon's stock. The online deals company issued a lackluster quarterly report after the market closed on Monday. Since Tuesday, the stock has hit a new low every day. It fell another 25 cents, or 5 percent, to close Friday at $4.75. Earlier in the day, it hit $4.51. That's down more than three-quarters of its initial public offering price of $20 in November.

Stocks often make big moves after earnings reports. When there's a big move right before a report, regulators take notice. The obvious question: Who knew what when? Ergo, FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, has launched an investigation of the 18.6% spike in Groupon shares on May 14, ahead of the company's better-than-expected financial results ...

This story appears in the May 7 edition of Forbes magazine on page 150. Zynga, Facebook and all use an independent auditor that is simultaneously inventing the rules for social media accounting. Somewhere, Arthur Andersen is shuddering.

Groupon has acquired Hyperpublic, snapping up the two-year-old location-based technology start-up amid a growth spurt at the daily deals service.