Groupon Shares Plunge Below IPO Price

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Groupon Inc., the largest Internet daily-deal site, plunged for a third day, falling below its initial public offering price for the first time.

The stock tumbled 16 percent to $16.96 today at the close in New York. Groupon, up 31 percent before this week, raised $700 million selling 35 million shares at $20 each on Nov. 3, the biggest IPO by a U.S. Internet company since Google Inc. first sold shares in 2004.

Groupon was dragged down this week on concern that profit margins will be squeezed by surging marketing costs and competition from rivals such as LivingSocial.com, backed by Amazon.com Inc. Signs that Europe’s credit crisis may be worsening also fueled speculation that Groupon’s international operations will suffer.

“There was a lot of skepticism to begin with about Groupon’s model, its margins, its growth rate, but now you throw on a world economy that’s very unpredictable and shaky, and I think people are doing a flight to safety again,” Stephan Paternot, founder of Actarus Funds, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-23/groupon-shares-plunge-below-ipo-price-three-weeks-after-initial-offering.html

[rfranklin]

1. for most merchants this company is a disaster...

they bring in hundreds of coupon clippers who come for the low price and never convert into regular customers. Groupon makes money but the merchants do not.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Denninger called it a couple weeks ago, as a failing Ponzi scheme.

Looks like Groupon waited too late to get its IPO out there.