Not dead yet, deal site Groupon soared 23% in initial after-hours trading, following a better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings release. The company beat revenue forecasts, bringing in $917 million, instead of the anticipated $846 million, and a 9% year-over-year increase. Adjusted earnings per share was at four cents, whereas Wall Street …
Read More »Earnings Review: Groupon Spikes, Pandora Mixed and Twitter’s Flat User Growth
It’s over! (Nearly.) This week was the last set of big earnings reports, barring a few happening early March — Square and Box, to be exact. It was a wild week, to be sure. Groupon (surprise!) beat expectations, sending the stock soaring. Pandora was reportedly in buyout talks, and had a …
Read More »SXSW goes apeshit for on-demand startups
It’s a tough world out there for on-demand startups — confusion around the W2 vs. 1099 conversation, tough margins, and customer service are but a few of the initial obstacles for these companies. Add in the necessity of huge amounts of up-front capital and it’s an uphill battle at best. …
Read More »Groupon launches new Merchant app that puts the daily deal front and center
For the last several years, Groupon has been expanding its business beyond the daily deal to position itself as the platform for local commerce. Some of those efforts have proven to be more challenging than others, however. And so, as Groupon now downsizes in less profitable areas, it’s also making a return to products that are tried, tested and lucrative. …
Read More »Why Silicon Valley’s ‘unicorn problem’ will solve itself
The rise was like a tech startup fairytale. Within three years of founding, this unicorn company had raised more than $1 billion in venture capital — closing an astonishing $950 million in its final private round at a nearly $5 billion valuation. Revenue growth was skyrocketing from $30 million in year …
Read More »SumUp and Payleven merge as European ‘Square clones’ consolidate
Some consolidation afoot in the world of mobile payments: today Groupon- and BBVA-backed SumUp and Rocket Internet’s Payleven — two of the several European startups that cropped up in the wake of Square with their own smartphone accessories to make debit and credit card transactions — have announced that they are merging, creating …
Read More »Groupon is selling its Indonesia business to fitness membership startup KFit
Groupon continues to streamline its global business after it announced the sale of its operations in Indonesia to a somewhat unlikely buyer. KFit, a one-year-old startup that sells gym and fitness memberships in the same style as U.S.-based ClassPass, is picking up Groupon Indonesia in an undisclosed deal. Malaysia-based KFit said it …
Read More »Groupon reports better-than-expected revenue, still not profitable
Deal site Groupon saw its shares rising today in after-hours trading, following a better-than-expected second quarter earnings report. Analysts expected the Chicago-based company to report negative earnings per share of $0.02 on revenue on a non-GAAP basis, and $713.8 million in revenue, according to Estimize data. But Groupon beat Wall Street revenue expectations with second quarter revenue of …
Read More »Groupon is buying LivingSocial, plans to downsize business to 15 markets from 27
Some significant consolidation is going down in the world of daily deals — going down being the operative phrase here. Today, Groupon announced it would acquire LivingSocial, its onetime big rival that was partly owned by Amazon, for an undisclosed sum. Lest you think that this is a power move made by companies …
Read More »Asia’s answer to ClassPass is pivoting to become a marketplace for local services
One of Asia’s most-funded clones of U.S.-based subscription fitness service ClassPass is pivoting to local services. KFit, which has raised more than $15 million from investors that include Sequoia, announced today that it has acquired the Groupon Malaysia business in an undisclosed deal. That comes less than six months after …
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