Online Coupons, Online Deals | featured news

When Groupon Inc filed its plan to go public with U.S. regulators in June, Chief Executive Andrew Mason proclaimed in a letter to prospective shareholders that "life is too short to be a boring company."

Groupon, the company that pioneered online group discounts, saw its stock climb by nearly a third in its public debut Friday, showing strong demand for an Internet company whose business model is considered unsustainable by some analysts. Groupon's stock jumped $6.40, or 32 percent, to $26.40 in late morning Friday after trading began at about 10:45 a.m. Earlier, the stock was trading as high as $31.14. Big fluctuations are common for companies that have just gone public as investors gauge what to do with the stock. The stock is trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol "GRPN."

Groupon Inc is poised to price its IPO $1 to $2 above its current range, responding to stronger than anticipated demand for the biggest U.S. initial public offering in months, three buyside sources said.

Groupon Inc is considering raising its IPO price range, as underwriters grow more confident about demand after completing the East Coast leg of a two-week roadshow to woo investors.

Google Inc unveiled big changes to its fledgling daily deals business on Thursday in the midst of rival Groupon Inc's IPO roadshow.

The bottom line: Uniting consumers under Groupon’s umbrella isn’t that easy, as its business model isn’t sustainable. The company has little bargaining power with product suppliers, and no barriers of entry to protect its businesses from competition.

Online coupon seller Groupon Inc. is discounting its expectations for its first stock offering. The company, which offers consumers daily deals targeted to their city and preferences, now expects net proceeds of about $478.8 million from its initial public offering of 30 million shares.

Daily deal distributor LivingSocial doled out $142.9 million in equity as part of its agreement to buy South Korea-based discount site TicketMonster, according to a source familiar with the purchase. The District-based company, which declared the transaction in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, has been on a buying binge in recent months as it looks to expand its global footprint through the acquisition of daily deal Web sites in overseas markets.

I wrote here at Forbes in May about the dangerous trend of unaudited numbers being used by companies, media, and investors to evaluate the potential of these IPOs... As long as they get their return before the gig is up, who cares what the real story is?

It’s taken a while, but newspapers across the U.S. are finally ready to leverage all those retailer relationships, build their own mobile coupon service and possibly revitalize their dying ad businesses.