Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Groupon Still Losing Money, CEO Is Fired And Leaks Final Email

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the can't-even-use-the-subjunctive dept.

New submitter Inzkeeper writes with news that the CEO of Groupon met the axe today: "Groupon CEO Andrew Mason made public an email he sent to Groupon employees. He takes responsibility for the company's downturn, expresses his appreciation for his staff, and wishes them well. 'For those who are concerned about me, please don't be — I love Groupon, and I'm terribly proud of what we've created. I'm OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through.'" Despite increased revenues, they are still losing about $81 million each quarter, and Wall Street needs blood.

19 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. For those who are concerned about me by Ripp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I bet most stopped right there.

    --
    Blech. Signatures.
    1. Re: For those who are concerned about me by multiben · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Harsh. It may be convenient to group people into nice neat categories eg. "All CEOs are terrible people with no feelings", but in reality the world is a much more varied place.

    2. Re: For those who are concerned about me by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have no idea what the CEO is like, but from the first time I saw one of their promotions, I thought this is a really bad concept, and I would not invest a bean in it.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    3. Re: For those who are concerned about me by daem0n1x · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just like everything else in life, a good balance is the best thing. Mr. Niceguy does not make a good CEO, or a good leader in any human endeavour. But a society that glorifies psychopaths is horribly wrong.

  2. On the other end... by zoffdino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a company that pumped the highest profit in a quarter without pumping oil. Massive cash pile, no debt. And Wall Street continues to punish it. Wall Street wants bloods.

    1. Re:On the other end... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Spare me your apologetics. Wall Street sees something in apple's future that you are unable to understand.

      the reason apple got to be so profitable was innovative design. these days, Apple's os looks the same as it did 5 years ago. Its smartphone got slightly bigger. The mp3 market is drying up. There are now hundreds of tablets on the market and apple releases a smaller one.

      The market isn't biased against apple. It's simply realizing that the wave of iPod,iPhone,iPad is over. If apple isn't creating their own market then they're just coasting along and their stock value should reflect that.

    2. Re:On the other end... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nice post a AC, but you're wrong on all counts. If you weren't AC I'd take the time to explain why.

      I doubt that, if you had any sort of argument to make you'd have made it. Names are only needed when the poster is relying on his or her reputation, or when you're planning to launch a personal attack instead of making a real argument. But looking at the parent post, I guess it's just a case of a troll with a face slamming on one without.

      But just FYI, this entire thread is nothing but flamebait, plain and simple so I'll respond in kind... only a complete dipshit would even bother using a real account to respond to it.

    3. Re:On the other end... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Apple is now absolutely the worst manufacturer of hardware and software...

      except for all the others.

      Samsung does make great components... but their products are cheesy shit.

      Apple may suck... but everyone else is so fucking far behind them whatever point you think you're trying to make is completely moot.

    4. Re:On the other end... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is a fairly idiotic comment. "Apple's fucked". Really? You don't have anywhere else to go than "fucked" for that company? Nice digital logic; let's see how that works out for your stock portfolio.

      So according to you, with $137bn in cash reserves (1/3 their market cap), and a more profitable quarter than the same time last year, they are on an irrevocable death spiral? And based on iPhone 5 being slightly disappointing, and a handful of production issues, you think there is no possibility that they might come out with something more innovative within the next year or two?

      This isn't market analysis. This is anti-fanboyism,

      As for Google Glasses - because Google flashes its panties to strangers and Apple doesn't, that means Apple isn't wearing any? Your question, "what's Apple's answer to that?" is valid, but your assumption that they have none because you don't know about it is naive to the point of stupidity.

  3. They should have taken the $6B from Google by cryfreedomlove · · Score: 4, Insightful

    2 years ago Google offered $5B to $6B to buy Groupon. Groupon turned them down and today their market cap is $3B. Oops.

    1. Re:They should have taken the $6B from Google by the_humeister · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not sure that's really what happened. I'll bet it's more like Google looked at their books, said "WTF???" and let Groupon "back away" from the deal to save face.

  4. Re:Soooooo by tftp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    does this mean that everybody's caught on to their predatory business model?

    No, not everybody. Just those who haven't seen it from day zero.

  5. Re:Soooooo by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The thing is, they could probably stand to make a lot of money if they weren't quite so predatory. I think that for the most part, the people who bought the groupons were quite happy. However, the businesses who offered the groupons often got shafted. I'm sure they could easily change the way they they deal with businesses to make sure they have a much better experience. For instance, most of the time they push for no limits on the number of coupons sold. Instead, there should always be a limit, because most businesses aren't set up to handle the amount of business that Groupon could send to them. Groupon would still make money off the deal, and would probably even have some repeat business.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  6. Re:If Groupon was Battletoads by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure that 'being CEO of a company built on skimming a percentage of the profits from businesses willing to lose money and make it up in volume' is epic trolling on a scale that most trolls will never even be able to dream of...

  7. Re:If Groupon was Battletoads by guttentag · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be short-lived, fictitious, and not popular with today's consumers. Maybe Groupon is Battletoads.

  8. Re:Soooooo by geekoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Do you keep cutting and pasting that?

    Not all business lost money on every sale. Stupid ones that offered to much did. That's not Groupons fault, and Groupon isn't predetory.

    Yes, some idiot decides they are going to sell cup caked to an unlimited number of people for a dime, they are going to lose money.

    Of course, it never occurs to them to put a volume limit, or simply close earl;y when they realize they have made a mistake.

    It's all groupon's fault.
    I talk about this to every place I use a groupon at.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  9. Re:Yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Judging by the sheer amount of Pro-Groupon turfing you've been doing I'm guessing you've got money invested in them, or are just completely clueless. The entire model is geared to push retailers to short-sell their products or services, it's a lowest-bidder war between the merchants who are putting them out. Groupon also aggressively markets to businesses which are already on the verge of failing, using a line of basically "well it's worth a last ditch effort" and as long as they don't close shop in a week Groupon makes their money and the buyer get fucked as well.

    You also obviously don't understand the mind of the Coupon hunter- they are not going to PAY good money for a coupon if it's not a damn good deal. So what if I can save 10% to re-carpet my living room? I can get that deal any where in town. But when you're offering it at 50% of the best offer the competition runs, I might just decide it's time for some new floor coverings.

    But arguing with you is rather pointless, people have seen Groupon, tried it, and walked away with a bad taste in their mouth. The stock price is tanking because all they are doing is spending more and more cash with less and less to show for it. So 'turf away, Mr. Shill, 'turf away... if you do it enough who knows... You might get your next purchase of Astroturf for 25% the normal rate!

  10. Re:If Groupon was Battletoads by reverseengineer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The analogy between Battletoads and Groupon goes even deeper. Just as Battletoads had an infamous bug that prevented Player 2 from completing Level 11 (they would just sit motionless until they lost all their lives), Groupon looks like in the near future it will be stuck in Chapter 11.

    --
    "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
  11. Re:His problem is that they're too small by Dahamma · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or more accurately, they are getting boned because EVERYONE has a competing service. Barrier to entry on this concept is near zero.