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I am not trying to rain on anyone’s IPO parade. What the people at Groupon have done is pretty amazing. But just because there are big revenue numbers associated with the company, it’s important to see if the thing is profitable. As of yesterday’s IPO filing, it is not. This chart from SAI tells the story.
And remember when Groupon raised $950 million not so long ago? Guess what that did? It simply paid out the early investors in handsome sums. It did little to build the business. You can get the details in the All Things Digital post.
Once again, congrats to the very small group of individuals that have already cashed in on the Groupon deal. Does that mean that all the rest of the investment world will have the same shot through the IPO? Unless Groupon figures out a way to scale without losing money (not easy at all) this could be a stinker and it could harken in another dark age of overvalued, overhyped companies that will just take the money and run.
Your take?
