Several interesting Groupon stories out:
hackers take down Israeli Groupon:
Hackers take down Groupon's Israeli site: report1:44 PM ET, 11/19/2012 - MarketWatch Pulse News Bullet
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Hackers claiming be from Pakistan managed to shut down the Israeli site of online daily deal company Groupon Inc. on Monday, according a report in the Jerusalem Post. The Post said the hackers claimed to be from a pro-Palestinian group and took over the site at groupon.il early Monday morning to post messages warning Israeli troops against launching a ground attack on Gaza. The reported hacking of the Groupon site came a day after Israel's Finance Ministry said more than 44 million hack attacks have been made on Israeli government Web sites since Israel began launching air raids on Gaza last Wednesday. Groupon officials didn't immediately comment on the matter. Groupon's shares rose almost 4% Monday, to $3.10.
and this:
Groupon (GRPN) Not Seeing Death Spiral, Deutsche Bank "Warming Up"9:41 AM ET, 11/19/2012 - Street Insider
Is Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) free-fall nearing an end? Yes, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank.
The firm said they are "warming up" to the online coupon provider, although they stopped short of upgrading the stock.
"We recently spent time with Groupon and came away increasingly positive that the company could enter the sweet spot between a value-trap story and a "things are getting less worse" (second derivative improving) story, where the biggest returns are typically generated," the analyst notes. "The challenging part is assessing how many more quarters of negative trends are ahead, before evidence of a stabilization becomes more apparent to the street, we currently think GRPN is within 2-3 quarters. In summary, given the negative sentiment that comes with our preferred low-multiple territory, we are incrementally warming up to GRPN, but not quite ready to upgrade."
The notion that everything is imploding at Groupon is not correct, the firm attests. "NA is actually fairly stable Q/Q (but decelerating Y/Y), Europe is having significant issues that should take several quarters to fix. The ex-Amazon team has grown of late, they are not leaving for other opportunities, which is telling," the analyst notes.
On speculation that the mix shift to to 1-P from 3-P is going to cause FCF to go negative is also not the case, the firm said. "Working capital dynamics are similar (~60 AP days) and hence as long as GRPN can grow billings, its FCF is going to remain positive," they said.
While goods is cannibalizing local, goods provides an important "back-fill" mechanism as GRPN builds up the Local merchant relationships in many tier 2 and 3 markets, the firm notes.
One of the reasons the firm is not upgrading is because of the European business. They belies were are still several quarters from stabilization.
Deutsche Bank reiterated their Hold rating and price target of $4.00/
For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Groupon, Inc. click here. For more ratings news on Groupon, Inc. click here.
Shares of Groupon, Inc. closed at $2.98 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $2.60-$26.90. |
