Groupon shares up 40%

[DateDoc]

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Groupon(GRPN) opened at $28 a share on the Nasdaq on Friday, soaring 40% from its initial offer price.

On Thursday night, Groupon priced shares of the offering at $20, above the range of $16 to $18 it had initially sought. The company netted $700 million in the stock sale, valuing the daily deals site at close to $13 billion.

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/stor...FREE&cm_ite=NA
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GRPN

[12clicks]

how long will this bubble last?

[CS-Jay]

Didn't it open at $30?

[blazin]

Crazy valuation...

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by 12clicks

how long will this bubble last?

was wondering the same myself...

[Bladewire]

I'm not a believer. After a while I cancelled the email notifications because the offers were nothing I was interested in, sent to me, every day, like spam

[VikingMan]

I want to short this fucking stock so bad. For now I will just have to enjoy watching Apple tank.

[Just Alex]

Originally Posted by Squirtit

I'm not a believer. After a while I cancelled the email notifications because the offers were nothing I was interested in, sent to me, every day, like spam

Yes, it went to shitter fast. Used to have some good offers but now it all junk.

[TheSquealer]

Funny times we live in when a Ponzi Scheme goes public.

[DateDoc]

Originally Posted by CS-Jay

Didn't it open at $30?

The IPO price was $20. It went just over $31 at one point. Right now it is around 40% up.

[grumpy]

another bubble. Lets see how long it last

[vsex]

Living Social has muuuuuch better deals

[acctman]

they better sell the company fast and stop being greedy

[TheSquealer]

Originally Posted by vsex

Living Social has muuuuuch better deals

Better deals for who?

People seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of their business model, who wins and who loses.

There are 3 parties to a deal.

The Buyer
The Site
The Seller

- The Site wins. They get paid no matter what and take a huge % of sales

- The Buyer wins because they get cheap shit

- The Seller loses because they don't understand the disastrous consequences of offering deals at a loss to people who will not become regular customers. This is why all Groupon/Living Social et al feature retarded small businesses like Billy Bobs Alligator Airboat Tours and not Best Buy or Toys R Us.

Daily Deal sites prey on the desperate and ignorant as an important and necessary component to their business model. The problem with relying on the ignorant as customers and seeing such massive success is that everyone eventually gets educated.

[TheSquealer]

Originally Posted by acctman

they better sell the company fast and stop being greedy

Greedy?

While online ad sellers cheer, this doesn't bode well for Groupon. The company must dial back its whopping half-billion in marketing spending to become profitable and, so far, those cuts have meant slowing growth in paying customers.

Groupon's $613 million in marketing expense for the first nine months of the year has largely gone toward bringing new subscribers to the platform, according to public filings.

http://adage.com/article/digital/gro...-works/230777/

[mafia_man]

Originally Posted by DateDoc

The IPO price was $20. It went just over $31 at one point. Right now it is around 40% up.

You'd know all about overvaluation. Just look at your sig.

[The Heron]

It's a stupid fucking concept why it's still going I don't know

[Houdini]

Although we all know this will end up, to Groupon's intermediate shorter term defense, they've only put up 4.95% of the company to the public. They still have a huge amount of the company to sell off if they need more capital.

[vsex]

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Better deals for who?

People seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of their business model, who wins and who loses.

There are 3 parties to a deal.

The Buyer
The Site
The Seller

- The Site wins. They get paid no matter what and take a huge % of sales

- The Buyer wins because they get cheap shit

- The Seller loses because they don't understand the disastrous consequences of offering deals at a loss to people who will not become regular customers. This is why all Groupon/Living Social et al feature retarded small businesses like Billy Bobs Alligator Airboat Tours and not Best Buy or Toys R Us.

Daily Deal sites prey on the desperate and ignorant as an important and necessary component to their business model. The problem with relying on the ignorant as customers and seeing such massive success is that everyone eventually gets educated.

for me, why should I care about who else is involved. It's not the red cross dood.

[DVTimes]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15589083

[TheSquealer]

Originally Posted by vsex

for me, why should I care about who else is involved. It's not the red cross dood.

If you are looking for deals, you shouldn't care. If you are looking to invest in a flimsy tech stock which is nothing more than a pyramid scheme, you should care.

[vsex]

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

If you are looking for deals, you shouldn't care. If you are looking to invest in a flimsy tech stock which is nothing more than a pyramid scheme, you should care.

i'm just talkin' deals man.

[Domain Diva]

There was much celebration when the Titanic set sail....

[acctman]

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Greedy?

While online ad sellers cheer, this doesn't bode well for Groupon. The company must dial back its whopping half-billion in marketing spending to become profitable and, so far, those cuts have meant slowing growth in paying customers.

Groupon's $613 million in marketing expense for the first nine months of the year has largely gone toward bringing new subscribers to the platform, according to public filings.

http://adage.com/article/digital/gro...-works/230777/

I personally think they should have sold when Google offered to buy them. I can understand not wanting to let go and dreams of being even bigger, but lets face it there is nothing unique about there business. It's been duplicated 6-10 times ... FB, Google, LivingSocial, Yelp, Foursquare, etc. all have groupon clones. Look at Digg should have sold when Microsoft wanted them.

[Dubya]

Originally Posted by mafia_man

You'd know all about overvaluation. Just look at your sig.

[SomeCreep]

I predict GRPN will hit $15/share within 6 months.

[Furious_Male]

The float was way to small to begin with. It was bound to shoot up. A bunch of flippers are playing it right now.

[TheSquealer]

Originally Posted by acctman

I personally think they should have sold when Google offered to buy them. I can understand not wanting to let go and dreams of being even bigger, but lets face it there is nothing unique about there business. It's been duplicated 6-10 times ... FB, Google, LivingSocial, Yelp, Foursquare, etc. all have groupon clones. Look at Digg should have sold when Microsoft wanted them.

Their story again and again was that the sole reason for not selling was because they believed they could do better with an IPO. I personally do not believe they have a future because it is a terrible business model. They rely on 10,000+ person sales force and a near 1 BILLION dollar marketing budget this year to hit the numbers they are hitting, none of which are sustainable.

It's also worth pointing out that facebook et al have failed in this arena. It's a horrible business model.

Good news for Groupon
The IPO came just in time...before the principles lost everything.

Bad news for Groupon... all ponzi schemes eventually collapse...

[ErectMedia]

Originally Posted by acctman

I personally think they should have sold when Google offered to buy them. I can understand not wanting to let go and dreams of being even bigger, but lets face it there is nothing unique about there business. It's been duplicated 6-10 times ... FB, Google, LivingSocial, Yelp, Foursquare, etc. all have groupon clones. Look at Digg should have sold when Microsoft wanted them.

Agreed, The point of them not turning a profit yet doesn't concern me as the user base is valuable it's mainly the point that "there is nothing unique about there business" and can be duplicated. I think it's a smart buy on the opening as long as you know when to dump it.