Groupon

Should You Invest in Groupon?

by Glenn Busch November 3, 2011
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Groupon is pricing it’s IPO today and will be set for trading tomorrow. If all the recent S-1 revisions are any clue, Groupon’s future 10-Qs and 10-Ks are going to be a laugh riot. I know where I stand on Groupon but for those still undecided the folks at BetaBeat created this handy flow chart on whether or not you should invest in Groupon (GRPN).

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More Bearish Thoughts on Groupon

by Glenn Busch June 17, 2011
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Groupon is essentially holding a portfolio of loans backed by the receivables of small businesses. If a business goes under, consumers will come back to Groupon for their money back. Unless Groupon is actually doing credit assessments on businesses that it chooses to feature, this is a big risk for Groupon.

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Adjusted CSOI, Groupon’s Wacky Accounting Metric

by Glenn Busch June 14, 2011
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It’s easy to see why Groupon wants prospective shareholders to look at its accounts this way. Strip out marketing expenses, acquisition-related costs, stock compensation, interest expense and payments to the tax man and, presto, the Chicago startup led by Andrew Mason earned $60.6 million. If investors accepted this fantastical form of accounting, all sorts of companies would be worth billions more too.

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Bearish Thoughts on Groupon (GRPN)

by Glenn Busch June 13, 2011
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Groupon has impressive subscriber growth but again the question remains, are people finding value in their service and buying the coupons groupons? Or are people just signing up? According to Groupon’s key metrics it looks like more and more people are just signing up.

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