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

To: epicure who wrote (259)	8/11/2012 10:11:32 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 480

I picked up a few shares a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of their earnings release. I am expecting an upside surprise. I don't have a problem with Groupon's business model. For some reason they are being punished for having been clever enough to figure out how to get their customers to finance their business. Their balance sheet may be a bit of a mess, but then most restaurant companies operate quite profitably with negative working capital because they get credit from their vendors while taking in cash or credit cards from their customers. The Groupon clones are falling by the wayside and they are fine tuning their model. Unfortunately, rushed their IPO. I would feel more confident if they brought in some adult supervision.

To: epicure who wrote (259)	8/13/2012 5:05:36 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 480

GRPN is getting beaten down in AH. They exceeded expectations on their earnings, but missed on the revenue side. The press release: finance.yahoo.com Note that they generated $75 million in cash from operations during the second quarter. Groupon Swings to Profit, But Revenue’s Light By Paul Vigna Wall Street Journal August 13, 2012, 4:13 PM Groupon swung to a second-quarter profit, even including non-GAAP adjustments, but the shares are down more than 10% in late trading as revenue was light, the company offered up a tepid outlook, and some of the metrics indicated the company’s losing critical momentum. Groupon earned 4 cents a share, or 8 cents a share non-GAAP, on revenue of $568.3 million. That’s an improvement from last year’s loss of 34 cents a share (22 cents, non-GAAP) on sales of $392.6 million, and above Street consensus of a loss of 2 cents a share, or earnings of 3 cents non-GAAP. But the sales figure was light; Street consensus was for sales of $574.8 million. Also, the growth rate decelerated significantly. Second-quarter sales rose 45%, well below the 89% rate the company reported in the first-quarter. The company projected third-quarter sales between $580 million and $620 million, and income from operations of $15 million to $35 million. Street consensus for third-quarter sales is $605.5 million. Shares are down 13% in late trading at $6.59. The biggest headache for Groupon would be if customers are plain getting tired of the barrage of coupons the company offers. There were indications, though, that is exactly what’s happening, as Dow Jones’ George Stahl reports: Groupon’s earnings report again raises concerns that subscribers are growing weary of the daily deals segment. The company’s gross billings — which represents the total amount collected from customers for Groupons sold, excluding taxes and refunds — was $1.29B in the second quarter, below the $1.45B expected by Citi and down 5% from the 1Q. The results derail any optimism from Groupon’s 10% improvement in 1Q sequential billings growth, which was seen as a rebound from the then surprisingly small 6% jump in 4Q. “One of the key long-term risks in Groupon’s business model is the possibility of daily deal email fatigue experienced by consumers,” Citi said in a note before the earnings release. - John Letzing contributed to this post. blogs.wsj.com