

Ahead Of IPO, Groupon Consolidates By Suing Ex-employees, Pitching New Version - gaoprea
http://www.blockread.com/2011/10/ahead-of-ipo-groupon-consolidates-by.html

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zrgiu_
How is that consolidation ? It's just a struggle for one more push before the
IPO, one more spike for their company to be valued as high as possible. It's a
smoke curtain. Don't get me wrong, if I were Groupon I would do the same
thing, but please, don't call it "consolidation"

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raganwald
Come now, isn’t it obvious that they’re consolidating their bad press? I mean,
seriously, who reads about a lawsuit against ex-employees and thinks “Well, I
wasn’t going to buy the stock, but now that I see what massive, cast-iron
balls they have, I’m going to call my broker?”

It’s not like they are suing someone who might pay them hundreds of millions
of dollars and it’s not like they have a chance of driving a major competitor
right out of business. This is a nuisance move at best but at worst it reminds
potential investors that they have serious competition. I’m obviously the last
person anyone should ask for advice on how to run an IPO, but I would think
that reminding the marketplace that you have competition and boasting about
how you are easily distracted from running your business is not a good move.

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twainer
Quite right. I have followed investment events for quite some time and I
cannot recall a shadier-looking company hitting the open market. It really
boggles the mind: WHO is buying this? WHO is telling others to buy this? I
know Warren Buffet isn't looking at any of this . . .

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RexRollman
I am not someone who buys stocks, and I really have no idea how the IPO will
go, but Groupon strikes me as particularly unappealing company.

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laluser
I recently interviewed with Groupon just a few weeks ago. The people I met
were all pretty laid back. It looks like the developers are treated nicely.
Most of the people I talked to seem with the current state of things. Most of
the site with the exception of some backend stuff is handled by rails, so you
can imagine how much of a mess it must be to have 200+ developers writing
feature after feature all on the same rails application (yes, I realize I am
exaggerating a bit). I did get some impressive numbers on the number of deals
that they have and some of the growth that they are experiencing, so that
aspect was a bit impressive. I just wonder how many people are going to try to
escape post-IPO.

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Steko
Felix Salmon's recent write up:

[http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/10/21/the-
groupon...](http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/10/21/the-groupon-
roadshow/)

 _Overall, then, I think it’s pretty clear that people who think Groupon’s
some kind of Ponzi scheme are wrong. There’s a real business here, with a real
business model. The big question is whether Groupon can execute...

If I had to make a forecast, I’d say that Groupon is going to be around for
the foreseeable future, but that the error bars ... are enormous. It could
just slow down ... [or] become that thing everybody wants to be these days, a
platform._

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oldstrangers
<speculation>

Netflix is strangled by content providers, forced to pivot or bow out. Groupon
flounders, is first of the big start ups to drop out. Gowalla and Posterous
fight to see which of the little guys goes first, will try to be acquired,
ultimately die. VC funding drops significantly, the mini bubble bursts, wall
street panics.

</speculation>

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klochner
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude>

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lien
How can you sue your ex-employees and still feel good about the company IPO?

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trailguru
especially in California - good luck with that

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URSpider94
Groupon and its ex-employees appear to both be located in Illinois, according
to TFA...

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hummingbird
I suspect Groupon is fraud. They are a one time ripoff, and after that have no
recurring customers. The faster they crash, the faster Silicon Valley can
focus on value creating lasting startups.

