The board of directors of daily online deals site Groupon
Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is expected to meet later on Wednesday and discuss the issue
of appointing a new Chief Executive, as frustration mounts over the performance
of incumbent and co-founder Andrew Mason.
Groupon, which was hailed as the poster-boy for the
second coming of Internet companies, has fallen into tough times as revenues
sag and its stock price has taken a beating in the stock exchange.
The shares have dropped 80 percent since Groupon’s
November 2011 initial public offering, as demand for online coupons has cooled.
Mason has struggled to shore up the core business or push the company into new
areas that will generate new sources of revenue.
The company’s woes are being laid directly at the door
of Mason, who has not done anything so far to arrest the decline. One of the
main reasons for the poor performance of the company has been the economic
decline in Europe.
In November the company reported losses for its third
quarter that was much lower than what it reported a year earlier while revenues
showed a stronger growth.
But investors have failed to be impressed with its
results.
Technology blog AllThingsD has originally reported
about the meeting. Shares of Groupon rose as much as 4.8 percent to $4.15 in
late trading on the news. They closed on Tuesday at $3.96 in New York.
The company makes money by selling discounts -- known
as Groupons -- from businesses such as restaurants and nail salons. It then
splits the revenue with the businesses. It has also sought to diversify its
income by introducing Groupon Goods, an e-commerce site for marked-down
products.
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