4 ms·
Groupon Propped Up With Lowest Internet Float in a Decade
- incongruity 15y agoJust when you thought it couldn't get worse... Groupon is just a slow-motion train wreck (which everyone still seems to want to get a ride on, oddly).
- ChuckMcM 15y agoActually I read the press as Groupon is having a hard time selling seats on the train. Not that I know anything of course. The analysis that the small float is an attempt to keep the per-share price high(er) and the valuation somewhere up from their last round, is spot on. If I were a betting person I'd give them 50/50 odds that they can't get the offering fully subscribed even with Goldman's using its deep pockets to cover unsold shares.
- raganwald 15y agoThese articles about the Groupon IPO all seem to have the same feel, reporting some chicanery that doesn't definitively suggest that the stock is a turd, but do suggest that the financeers behind this business are treating the entire thing as an exercise in cashing out quickly. I strongly suspect that investment bankers are playing Pump'n'Dump Bingo with Groupon, which is a little like Buzzword Bingo: Each player throws $10,000 in the pot and gets a bingo card. The squares have random stock promotion events on them, like "restates earnings," "cancels road show" or "Cxx resigns." The first person who gets five in a row collects the pot. Right now, the players are checking their cards for "Low float."