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Technology Stocks : Groupon, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (76)	8/5/2011 5:08:28 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 480

Groupon is still growing like a weed: Exclusive: Groupon subscribers jump to 115 million By Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO \| Fri Aug 5, 2011 4:49pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Groupon Inc subscribers have more than doubled to 115 million so far this year, according to a person familiar with the situation. Groupon had 50.58 million subscribers at the end of 2010. That jumped 64 percent to 83.1 million at the end of the first quarter. Since then, the number of subscribers has climbed to 115 million, the person said. That means subscribers are up about 38 percent since March 31. Most of the recent growth has not come through acquisitions because Groupon has not bought many companies lately, the person added. Groupon filed plans in June for a $750 million initial public offering that may value the company at as much as $20 billion. However, Groupon is facing more competition from big rivals including Google Inc and Facebook. "There are few growth opportunities on the scale of companies like Groupon," said Lou Kerner, vice president in equity research at Wedbush Securities covering social media and e-commerce. "That's really what a lot of investors are seeking today." (Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) reuters.com

To: stockman_scott who wrote (76)	8/5/2011 7:22:19 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Respond to of 480

It appears that Groupon is ready to back off from its ACSOI disclosures: Exclusive: Groupon Will Dump Controversial ACSOI Accounting in Amended IPO Filing Kara Swisher All Things D August 5, 2011 at 2:49 pm PT According to numerous sources close to the situation and after regulatory pressure, Groupon will amend its S-1 public offering filing to remove references to an unusual accounting treatment that has attracted controversy. Sources said the new filing by the social buying company, which is helmed by CEO and Co-founder Andrew Mason (pictured above), will likely occur as early as Monday. It can’t come a minute too soon regarding a metric called ACSOI, or adjusted consolidated segment operating income, which the Chicago-based Groupon used when it filed its S-1 documents in June. As I wrote at the time about the odd use of ACSOI: Let’s be clear, this is a number that does not include important costs, such as critical online marketing expenses to attract new customers to Groupon. Such accounting is called non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles). In 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, Groupon said its Adjusted CSOI was $60.6 million and $81.6 million, respectively. On a GAAP basis, Groupon lost $413.4 million million for 2010 and $113.9 million in the first three months of 2011. And, indeed, questions from the media, investors and, most importantly, the Securities and Exchange Commission about how Groupon accounts for its revenue and profits using ASCOI were swift and decidedly negative. Hence, a furious debate — along with much internal tension — within Groupon about what to do. At first, in another S-1 amendment, the company backed away from using ACSOI as a “valuation metric.” But that was apparently not enough for the SEC or anyone else, so Groupon’s top managers finally thought it best to rid itself of the term entirely. That will happen next week, sources said. And, in coming weeks, sources added, the company will be filing additional financial information about both its growth and costs, which will undoubtedly also be put under a microscope by the media, investors and regulators. A Groupon spokesman declined to comment when asked about the removal of ACSOI from its public offering documents. allthingsd.com