‘I’ve never much liked Groupon…” is how I have started every one of my posts on the company. See Groupon plunges - again and work back. My own experiences with them early on convinced me that this was a disaster waiting to happen. And it has over and over again since.
The latest episode in the sad saga came last night when its CEO Andrew Mason exited sending a tweet saying “After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family….Just kidding. I was fired today”.
It’s not just the Groupon business model that we disliked. It was the accounting irregularities and other ‘missteps’, as they called them, that spooked us and many other investors.
Groupon shares showed a rare gain after-hours on the announcement of Mason’s exit.