Groupon, Online Deals | featured news

Groupon Inc sold more than 650,000 holiday deals between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, an increase of 500 percent compared with last year, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mason said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Many retailers are enjoying a Thanksgiving shopping spree lift from investors, but not Groupon. Its shares closed today down nine percent, settling at $15.24 after bouncing off a new low of $14.85. That’s less than half the $31.14 that some investors paid at the stock’s high point, just after it went public in early November. More recently, it has been trading in the low to mid-$20s.

When Groupon Inc filed its plan to go public with U.S. regulators in June, Chief Executive Andrew Mason proclaimed in a letter to prospective shareholders that "life is too short to be a boring company."

Groupon, the company that pioneered online group discounts, saw its stock climb by nearly a third in its public debut Friday, showing strong demand for an Internet company whose business model is considered unsustainable by some analysts. Groupon's stock jumped $6.40, or 32 percent, to $26.40 in late morning Friday after trading began at about 10:45 a.m. Earlier, the stock was trading as high as $31.14. Big fluctuations are common for companies that have just gone public as investors gauge what to do with the stock. The stock is trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol "GRPN."

Groupon Inc is poised to price its IPO $1 to $2 above its current range, responding to stronger than anticipated demand for the biggest U.S. initial public offering in months, three buyside sources said.

Groupon Inc is considering raising its IPO price range, as underwriters grow more confident about demand after completing the East Coast leg of a two-week roadshow to woo investors.

Google Inc unveiled big changes to its fledgling daily deals business on Thursday in the midst of rival Groupon Inc's IPO roadshow.

The bottom line: Uniting consumers under Groupon’s umbrella isn’t that easy, as its business model isn’t sustainable. The company has little bargaining power with product suppliers, and no barriers of entry to protect its businesses from competition.

Online coupon seller Groupon Inc. is discounting its expectations for its first stock offering. The company, which offers consumers daily deals targeted to their city and preferences, now expects net proceeds of about $478.8 million from its initial public offering of 30 million shares.

I wrote here at Forbes in May about the dangerous trend of unaudited numbers being used by companies, media, and investors to evaluate the potential of these IPOs... As long as they get their return before the gig is up, who cares what the real story is?