Here's a thought: maybe like 10 of the previous 13 offerings, the reason has less to do with the company and more to do with the environment.
Groupon IPO on hold
21–30 of 54 posts
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#22Meanwhile, Guidewire, a company that actually makes money, contributes to the technical world (Gosu (http://gosu-lang.org), The Aardvark Build Tool (http://vark.github.com/), etc.), that made the front page of TechCrunch because it has an upcoming IPO:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/05/insurance-technology-compan...
And that was named "The Best Tech Company to Work For"
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-tech-companies-to-wo...
By Business Insider has been almost totally ignored by hacker news.
Hmmmmmm.
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#23I though that they were going to successfully IPO around the previous valuations. It's just been a supremely turbulent/volatile this summer and eyes have shifted to Tech IPOs commonly during downslopes. People have been considering if Tech IPOs are over-valued - not forgetting what happened just a couple years ago. My blog on the credibility of Groupon's IPO Valuation maybe wasn't so spot on. Granted, I voiced my tho…
>that have filled Groupon's pockets with over a billion in cash.
Having 'cash on hand' is great but it seems that groupon owes more than they have by a considerable margin:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Groupon-is-Effectively-minyanv...
Also that article says they have 208 million in cash, not nearly the 1.6 billion that you mention.
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#24How long can groupon survive without more funding? The way their financials sounded, I doubt they could even carry on as they are currently through the end of the year. That's a lot of pressure in an economy that could be back on the ropes.
Seems like their core business is pretty counter-cyclical. If the economy goes down, it'll be harder to raise funding, but more people will want coupons and more businesses will be desperate for any short-term revenue.
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#25Meanwhile, Guidewire, a company that actually makes money, contributes to the technical world (Gosu ( http://gosu-lang.org ), The Aardvark Build Tool ( http://vark.github.com/ ), etc.), that made the front page of TechCrunch because it has an upcoming IPO: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/05/insurance-technology-compan... And that was named "The Best Tech Company to Work For" http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-tech…
It's bad form to use the comments to complain that your employer isn't receiving enough attention on HN.
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#26I though that they were going to successfully IPO around the previous valuations. It's just been a supremely turbulent/volatile this summer and eyes have shifted to Tech IPOs commonly during downslopes. People have been considering if Tech IPOs are over-valued - not forgetting what happened just a couple years ago. My blog on the credibility of Groupon's IPO Valuation maybe wasn't so spot on. Granted, I voiced my tho…
>that have filled Groupon's pockets with over a billion in cash. Having 'cash on hand' is great but it seems that groupon owes more than they have by a considerable margin: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Groupon-is-Effectively-minyanv... Also that article says they have 208 million in cash, not nearly the 1.6 billion that you mention.
Revenue is also cash - before expenses [they are collecting this amount]. I'm not suggesting that Groupon's 'operations activities' aren't responsible for pulling/keeping them in the red.
However, investors like Warren Buffet look for high-earning and unprofitable companies quite frequently to get involved with - companies like Groupon. Reason being, with some direction by a strong [/new] board of directors (majority shareholders; highly-successful business leaders; wiki: 'See's Candies', 'Washington Post', 'Berkshire Hathaway'), a company can re-divert [i.e. 'pivot'] resources, slash out unprofitbale segments, etc., and successfully revive a titan.
Response note: I garnered my figure of $1.6 billion based on a Dartmouth article here: http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/cds-uploads/case-studies/pdf/G... -- see bottom of page two, second-to-last paragraph in the section titled, "The Fastest-Growing Business in History."
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#27The investors/founders who took so much off the table, in their previous rounds, should put most of it back in, if they're so confident. For example, Mason cashed out about $28 million, and Lefkowsky about $382 million. Reinvesting most of that would speak louder than another 'quirky' bit of made-to-leak copywriting.
But they are not confident. Which is why they took money off the table. In hindsight Mason is probably kicking himself for not taking more out. Leftkowsky seems to be all set though.
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#28The investors/founders who took so much off the table, in their previous rounds, should put most of it back in, if they're so confident. For example, Mason cashed out about $28 million, and Lefkowsky about $382 million. Reinvesting most of that would speak louder than another 'quirky' bit of made-to-leak copywriting.
[deleted]
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#29If they don't IPO, how long until they run out of cash on their current trajectory? I seem to remember the runway was surprisingly short (something like this or next quarter), in part because of using fundraising to give cash to early investors and insiders.
out of their last "uh like a billion" dollar round $810M went back out the door, they only kept $136M for operating expenses and I believe they're at about about a $100M a quarter run rate. So you have to believe the answer is soon . Those G round investors are getting extremely squeezed they need either an IPO or they are faced with having to put another round in to get some additional short term runway. I doubt at…
>>There is still a way out if a Google or maybe an Amazon wanted to take a shot at a bid right now. Groupon for $4 billion Anyone? Anyone?
As if. That ship is going down fast and hard.
Re: Groupon IPO on hold
#30Meanwhile, Guidewire, a company that actually makes money, contributes to the technical world (Gosu ( http://gosu-lang.org ), The Aardvark Build Tool ( http://vark.github.com/ ), etc.), that made the front page of TechCrunch because it has an upcoming IPO: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/05/insurance-technology-compan... And that was named "The Best Tech Company to Work For" http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-tech…
It's bad form to use the comments to complain that your employer isn't receiving enough attention on HN.
Well, I've called Warren Buffett a thief and a liar, and called separation of markup and code a sham, so I figured I'd complete the hacker news karma holocaust trifecta.