Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
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Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
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Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#2Groupon is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the silicon valley startup model.
Founders creating stupid companies with marginally useful products and the VCs pumping millions into them in hopes of a quick profit.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#3Groupon is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the silicon valley startup model. Founders creating stupid companies with marginally useful products and the VCs pumping millions into them in hopes of a quick profit.
Don't know why you're getting downvotes, I'd rather people reply to you as you're pretty specific.
Personally, I prefer SV when it's leaner. I'm actually working on a project that is actually innovative, and I'd much prefer to raise money later, hopefully when all this madness has dried up and VC's have time to evaluate something new.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#4Groupon is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the silicon valley startup model. Founders creating stupid companies with marginally useful products and the VCs pumping millions into them in hopes of a quick profit.
Don't know why you're getting downvotes, I'd rather people reply to you as you're pretty specific. Personally, I prefer SV when it's leaner. I'm actually working on a project that is actually innovative, and I'd much prefer to raise money later, hopefully when all this madness has dried up and VC's have time to evaluate something new.
I downvoted because the opinion is generic, reactionary and not insightful. Groupon has lots of problems, but some blanket stereotype about VC funding and the identification of Groupon, which millions of people choose to use, as "stupid," is neither "pretty specific" nor helpful.
Groupon might not be a strong company, might not have a good product, might be in for a lower share price, etc. But it doesn't add anything to call it "stupid" or lament the fact that they were given money, especially given how many times this sentiment is reiterated on every thread relating to Groupon.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#5They are turning things around ever so slightly at groupon. They have gone from negative operating income to positive. Still no income after taxes. I doubt that Groupon that will really turn a profit.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#6Groupon is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the silicon valley startup model. Founders creating stupid companies with marginally useful products and the VCs pumping millions into them in hopes of a quick profit.
Disagree. Besides that it's not in silicon valley, it made huge progress in a notoriously difficult yet humongous service category: local and small business marketing. It could have remained a tiny player like the 100s of copycats but instead decided to "go for it" by raising lots of money and expanding rapidly (the best use of vc and ipo money). People are much to focused on the original daily deal business (which remains massive and growing) and fail to see that Groupon is amassing an arsenal of valuable local/smb services. For example, it now offers both a cybersource and square competitor. And calendaring, loyalty services, etc.
If the company can continue stringing together solid quarterly results, it should get back to its ipo price and more.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#7The WSJ has an interesting article on Groupon today also. Actually, it is more of an excerpt from "Groupon's Biggest Deal Ever" (http://www.amazon.com/Groupons-Biggest-Deal-Ever-Unbelievabl...). "Behind Groupon's $6 Billion Brushoff" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230364010457744...)
With their current market cap just above 6bn, it may have actually served everyone better to take the Google deal. Apparently the board did not approve the deal because Google would only agree to an $800mm breakup fee, and antitrust approval would take up to eighteen months. Eighteen months from when they turned down the offer in December 2010 ends right around now! Still I have the highest respect for any founders that turn down a 6bn buyout.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#8They are turning things around ever so slightly at groupon. They have gone from negative operating income to positive. Still no income after taxes. I doubt that Groupon that will really turn a profit.
If it's not trivially easy to make a profit on a company like groupon where they split revenue 50/50 with the companies they advertise for, there has to be something deeply wrong.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't know why you're getting downvotes, I'd rather people reply to you as you're pretty specific. Personally, I prefer SV when it's leaner. I'm actually working on a project that is actually innovative, and I'd much prefer to raise money later, hopefully when all this madness has dried up and VC's have time to evaluate something new.
I downvoted because the opinion is generic, reactionary and not insightful. Groupon has lots of problems, but some blanket stereotype about VC funding and the identification of Groupon, which millions of people choose to use, as "stupid," is neither "pretty specific" nor helpful. Groupon might not be a strong company, might not have a good product, might be in for a lower share price, etc. But it doesn't add anything…
I don't think the opinion, as the other poster actually expressed it, is generic at all. Turn back a few years to the Google IPO and try to read the two sentences with the word "Google" (of the time) and see if either the first or second sentence still reads the same. Or pick another company of that period and try it.
The post just doesn't seem general enough to cover a different climate (which you might not have been active in, and which I personally hope we will return to eventually.)
That's all I have to say. I don't mind the current climate as much as the OP does. You're still free to disagree, but the sentiment as expressed is pretty clear and specific.
Still, glad you shared your thoughts.
Re: Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires
#10Groupon is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the silicon valley startup model. Founders creating stupid companies with marginally useful products and the VCs pumping millions into them in hopes of a quick profit.
Disagree. Besides that it's not in silicon valley, it made huge progress in a notoriously difficult yet humongous service category: local and small business marketing. It could have remained a tiny player like the 100s of copycats but instead decided to "go for it" by raising lots of money and expanding rapidly (the best use of vc and ipo money). People are much to focused on the original daily deal business (which r…
I might agree with you if it weren't for the strong stench of fraud coming off the whole enterprise. And I don't mean vague "I'm misusing the term Ponzi scheme" fraud concerns about the entire business model, I mean, accounting fraud. (And I also mean the term more colloquially than legally. It may be the case that their numbers are entirely legal, but still carefully spun to produce results that mislead people.)