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Groupon fires founder and CEO Andrew Mason; here’s his amazing sendoff letter
DigitalStruggling online deals pioneer Groupon says it ousted CEO Andrew Mason and will look for a new chief. Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis were appointed to the Office of the Chief Executive while a replacement is found. The announcement came Thursday after the market closed. Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights [...]
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Groupon says travel is a big deal as it makes concessions to local merchants
DigitalAlthough Groupon disappointed the financial community with its fourth quarter results and forecasts, don’t blame the angst on travel. Groupon likes to cite a non-GAAP metric, “gross billings,” and CEO Andrew Mason said February 27 that its travel and goods products both saw strong sequential increases increases in gross billings during the fourth quarter in North [...]
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LivingSocial raises $110 million and it’s a downer for daily deals
DigitalLivingSocial Inc. was worth about $1.5 billion in a recent financing round, less than a quarter its value as recently as 14 months ago, evidence of dwindling demand for the daily coupons that make up most of its sales. Investors put $110 million into the company and received 7.5 percent of its equity, Chief Executive [...]
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Facebook and Groupon apps add competing “Nearby” features for local discovery
DigitalIt’s all in the ‘hood at Facebook and Groupon as both brands within days added or updated identically named Nearby features in their mobile apps. Together with Airbnb and Hipmunk launching neighborhood-oriented features, as well as Google’s big local push last week with Google Maps for iOS and an upgraded Google + app, and buttressed by [...]
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Groupon Getaways with Expedia expands beyond vouchers
DigitalGroupon Getaways with Expedia is no longer just about limited-time flash sales for hotels, redeemable with Groupons, or vouchers, on certain blocked-out dates. Through an unannounced partnership with Switchfly, which generally provides technology solutions to loyalty programs, Groupon Getaways is now providing calendar-based shopping for hotel stays. Switchfly provides the back-end technology for the calendar-based [...]
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Groupon misses estimates this quarter and posts a net loss despite rise in sales
DigitalGroupon Inc., the largest daily-deal website, reported third-quarter sales that missed estimates as sales of coupons overseas declined from the previous quarter. The net loss was $2.98 million, the Chicago-based company said today in a statement. Sales rose 32 percent to $568.6 million, missing the $591 million average analyst estimate, according to data compiled by [...]
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Groupon filing reveals the extent of the SEC’s concern over the daily deal site’s reporting
DigitalGroupon Inc, responding to regulators’ inquiries into a controversial revision of its fourth-quarter results and handling of refunds, has promised to shore up disclosure but stopped short of agreeing to outline the performance of individual products from travel to concert deals. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked Groupon in August to provide a wealth [...]
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Travelzoo goes shopping for hotel booking site to buy as its voucher business stalls
DigitalThere’s trouble in paradise at Travelzoo, which revealed that its voucher and hotel-search business is under-performing, and it is actively looking to alter its product mix and acquire a hotel booking website. “We continue to be positive about our long-term growth strategy,” said Chris Loughlin, CEO, in an unusual announcement of preliminary results for the [...]
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Starbucks turns to LivingSocial for daily deals experiment
DigitalStarbucks Corp, the world’s largest coffee chain, is offering consumers a deal this week through daily-deal company LivingSocial, a vote of confidence in Groupon Inc’s main rival. LivingSocial, part owned by Amazon.com Inc, will offer a $10 Starbucks gift card for $5 on Wednesday. Customers have six months to claim the card, which can be [...]
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Groupon sees how low its stock price can go (Answer: really low)
DigitalGroupon Inc. tumbled to a record low after Evercore Partners Inc. downgraded shares of the daily-deal website, citing a potential for billings to decline. The shares retreated 5 percent to $4.75 at the close in New York, the lowest price since an initial public offering in November. The stock has lost 76 percent since the [...]
