3 ms·

Well, they basically did. "Altogether, $946.8 million, or roughly 86% of the funds raised across the three investments, was paid out to Groupon directors, offi

by nck4222 11y ago

Well, they basically did. "Altogether, $946.8 million, or roughly 86% of the funds raised across the three investments, was paid out to Groupon directors, officers and stockholders. Just $151.4 million was retained by the company to use as working capital and for general corporate purposes." June 2011 - http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/groupon-cash-out/#AoBOlTTNEqk8 http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/groupon-cash-out/#AoBOlTTNEqk...

joezydeco 11y ago
That was an amazingly effective scam, and nobody putting into those F and G rounds said boo. Just mind-blowing.
- fredkbloggs 11y ago
  It's mind-blowing that anyone would subscribe to an F or G round in the first place. That they would do so despite the obvious scammy nature of the whole thing is probably criminal, at least if they were managing OPM.
  - seiji 11y ago
    There was a comment yesterday about how investors only operate by FOMO ("fear of missing out"). Once you convince one, many more will follow. That's one reason this go-nowhere, do-nothing startup had so many investors: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clinkle https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clinkle — it's all psychological games ungrounded in any sense of reality. Once you have one name brand investor on board, the other investors basically abdicate their entire decision making ability. If you've ever been turned down by a16z, you can legitimately go around saying investors think less of you than they think of clinkle.
  - astrodust 11y ago
    There might be direct pressure from earlier investors to commit to an F or G round so that on future deals you might get in earlier on the next racket.
  - jbooth 11y ago
    Greater fool theory, they're thinking they'll make money on the IPO. They might have, actually, or they were very close to doing so -- a couple more weeks before the bad press Groupon started getting around the IPO and they'd have been sitting pretty.
rhino369 11y ago
Wow I didn't know that.

by nck4222 11y ago

joezydeco 11y ago

That was an amazingly effective scam, and nobody putting into those F and G rounds said boo. Just mind-blowing.

fredkbloggs 11y ago
It's mind-blowing that anyone would subscribe to an F or G round in the first place. That they would do so despite the obvious scammy nature of the whole thing is probably criminal, at least if they were managing OPM.
- seiji 11y ago
  There was a comment yesterday about how investors only operate by FOMO ("fear of missing out"). Once you convince one, many more will follow. That's one reason this go-nowhere, do-nothing startup had so many investors: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clinkle https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clinkle — it's all psychological games ungrounded in any sense of reality. Once you have one name brand investor on board, the other investors basically abdicate their entire decision making ability. If you've ever been turned down by a16z, you can legitimately go around saying investors think less of you than they think of clinkle.
- astrodust 11y ago
  There might be direct pressure from earlier investors to commit to an F or G round so that on future deals you might get in earlier on the next racket.
- jbooth 11y ago
  Greater fool theory, they're thinking they'll make money on the IPO. They might have, actually, or they were very close to doing so -- a couple more weeks before the bad press Groupon started getting around the IPO and they'd have been sitting pretty.

rhino369 11y ago

Wow I didn't know that.