Groupon revenue for 2010 was two times lower than stated

Rumors have been circulating for quite a while about the imminent release of the discount company Groupon to an IPO. Many experts who follow the company's activities believe that this is another “bubble” that grows only due to the desire of investors to invest in a company that shows constant growth. Groupon management tried to refute such suspicions, showing significant profits. So, in 2010, according to one of the reports, Groupon's revenue amounted to 713.4 million dollars. But it turned out that the real revenue is half that shown.

In addition, experts also suspect the departure of the second operational director this year. Previously, Groupon also announced its desire to enter an IPO with a capitalization of about $ 20 billion. Immediately before the planned exit to the stock exchange, a financial report was shown that did not satisfy US regulators. The experts considered that this report does not correspond to the real state of affairs. For example, it is estimated that by June of this year, Groupon’s total losses amounted to about $ 400 million.
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In the preliminary report, Groupon also showed an excessive figure of its own profit. So, if the company managed to sell the coupon to the buyer, then the entire amount received from the user was counted as Groupon revenue. But you should also take into account the fact that payments to this partner go from this amount. In the new report, where partnership contributions were already taken into account, the company's total revenue for 2010 turned out to be somewhat different - $ 312.9 million. This is about two times less than previously stated.

As a result, the date of the company's IPO is constantly moving away, and it becomes unclear what will happen next. In principle, it may well happen that access to the stock exchange will be canceled altogether, although so far the likelihood of this event (cancellation) is not so great. But the company's capitalization certainly does not amount to 20 billion, this can already be said with confidence.

Via CNET