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Every now and then, there's a company that I simply find as having an unsustainable business model. It's not so much an issue of not respecting the company, it's just that the business (as it is currently operating) cannot be seen as an ongoing concern. The Street.com reports: Groupon Plunges on Revised Results

Groupon shares plunged in extended trading on Friday after revising its reported fourth-quarter and full-year results, its first as a public company. The daily deals site reduced its fourth-quarter revenue by $14.3 million after initially reporting sales of $506.5 million. The revision also resulted in an increase to fourth-quarter operating expenses that reduced the company's operating income by $30 million, net income by $22.6 million and earnings by 4 cents a share. Groupon blamed the change on a shift in the company's fourth-quarter deal mix and higher price offers, which have higher refund rates. Investors baulked at the revision, pushing Groupon's shares down $1.68, or 9.14%, $16.70 in extended trading.

 Groupon_Crash

Of course paying subscribers, and even casual blog readers, cannot say that I didn't thoroughly warn you! Early shorts on this stock as per our research notes valuation matrices would have given pleasant Christmas presents and would have also stuffed one hell of an Easter basket as well!!!

On that note, let's reminisce....

1. Thursday, 16 June 2011 What Does Groupon and The Matrix Have in Common?
2. Monday, 26 September 2011 I Suggest Groupon Offer Coupons To It's IPO Investors, They're Going To Need Them
3. Monday, 26 September 2011 What's The Best Way To Profit From Groupon's IPO?
4. Sunday, 13 November 2011 I Hope You Groupon IPO Investors Got Coupons At The IPO!!! Yeah, That's Right I Was The First To Say It

It's 2011(2), Groupon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Banks, Brokers & REITs are all partying like its 1999! Subscribers, feel free to download  Groupon Forensic Analysis & Valuation (923.04 kB 2011-06-16 10:34:36)

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CNBC's Herb Greenberg brought this article to my attention: The checkered past of Groupon's chairman

FORTUNE -- "Lets start having fun... lets get funky... let's announce everything... let's be WILDLY positive in our forecasts... lets take this thing to the extreme... if we get wacked [sic] on the ride down-who gives a shit... THE TIME TO GET RADICAL IS NOW... WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE..."

Eric Lefkofsky

Eric Lefkofsky, serial entrepreneur

This is a quote from the dot-com era. It's pretty much what you'd expect a novice executive to say back then, when it was all about money and not at all about creating something good. It was written in an email by the co-founder of a company called Starbelly.com, which labeled itself a B2B provider -- back when people greeted that phrase with a straight face.

In early 2000, Starbelly sold itself to another company called Ha-Lo Industries for $240 million, much of which went to the author of those words, a man named Eric Lefkofsky. Not long after that transaction, Ha-Lo declared bankruptcy. Shareholders and others blamed the Starbelly deal, and a series of lawsuits ensued.

Eric Lefkofsky is the co-founder and chairman of Groupon, which filed last week for an IPO valuing the company at $30 billion, as well as its largest shareholder, with a pre-IPO 22% stake in the company.

Archived articles of interest...

1. A Realistic Forensic Valuation of LinkedIn – There Ain’t No Surprises Here…
2. The Anatomy Of The Record Bonus Pool As The Foregone Conclusion: We Plug The Numbers From Goldman’s Facebook Fund Marketing Brochure Into Our Models
3. Did Goldman Just Rip Its HNW and Institutional Clients Once Again? Facebook Growth Slows Pre-IPO, Just As We Warned!