Sun-Times Takes A Look At Groupon's Woes
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 27, 2012 6:35PM
The cover story of today's Sun-Times is about Groupon and the loss of its post-IPO luster.
The feature recaps the timeline between Groupon’s first round of financing to the IPO and everything the company has done right, and wrong, in between.
The two most notable criticisms of Groupon in the article are the same two that have been listed in every story critical of the online daily deal pioneer we’ve read: fundamental problems with the business model and Wall Street not taking a liking to CEO Andrew Mason. The problem with the business model, as several analysts have repeated over the past year, is that it’s easily duplicated. Analysts also have a problem with the “What? Me Worry?” attitude of Mason, which is diametrically, opposed to what they expect from the CEO of a major company.
Yet, despite these continued criticisms and a stock price that keeps dropping, Wall Street is still bullish on the stock. The Sun-Times notes that the six latest changes to major analysts’ ratings on Groupon have trended positive.