My Research on Initial Public Offerings

The project Groupon was launched in the year 2008. The idea was launched for dealing with the already existing business The Point that was a platform for starting and pledging a campaign. Andrew Mason, the CEO of the company, started a group for making it more profitable as well as easier to manage a business in comparison with The Point.

Net income on the income statement: $2,377,000,000 ($5.37 per share), which is an increase of 15% compared to 2014.

The 2016 balance sheet shows that this organization had revenue of 12 million dollars and expenses of 11.9 million. Total assets as of September 30, 2016 were 22 million dollars. This number shows that over 19 million dollars are investments.

The brilliance of the concept is that while engaging the consumers to stay on their friends and family about the deals, they are simultaneously advertising the app and concept. Groupon is basically acting as a bridge of communication between the buyer and the seller, as the consumers may be unaware of the seller’s very existence.

Andrew and his partner, Eric Lefkofsky came up with another company and created Groupon, which launched in November 2008 where it first started in Chicago. Eric provided Andrew $1 million in “seed money” to drop out of school and got Groupon started because Eric developed the idea. Groupon’s first deal was to buy two pizzas for the price of one in a restaurant on first floor of the building where Groupon started.

Groupon is a real deal industry that operates within the Electronic commerce also referred to as e-commerce is a module of business that employs computer networks, namely the internet to trade and to sell and buy. At its essence it is an industry that uses technology and the internet to conduct business. Moreover, the e-commerce industry may employ online shopping where customers can use internet access to shop and trade between businesses or between customers and businesses. Groupon is a geographically diversified publicly traded company that operates based off of the ecommerce sale of the day model. This industry business model caters to customers shopping for deals and employs the means of using marketing, and cost saving strategies to entice potential clients by offering discounted coupons to potential clients for savings at various groups. There are discretionary concerns that are notably present for companies that operate in this industry, namely the fact that in a weak economic environment people are less likely to spend money on memberships at clubs and eating out at premier places.

Groupon is valued at 5 billion dollars. It makes money through deals with businesses individually. Groupon doesn’t make money until users access their website and use the coupons at the stores. This is as Groupon states, “we don’t make money until you make money”. Groupon ranges in profit from deals as for each deal they reach an agreement, they make from $2000 on the lower ends, to even $45000. We cannot be charging businesses as much as Groupon is because we are a new start up to this industry. We have to gather a set user base followed by deals that businesses will want to accept as we are a small start-up trying to attack the bigger

Using the data provided in Exhibit 1, we can get free cash flow of year 2007-2011 would be $21.24 million, $26.73 million, $22.10 million, $25.47 million, and $29.54 million respectively. The computation is showed in Exhibit 1($ in thousands).

Weaknesses—ICOS had no marketing skills, new comer into the market, no market share, no brand recognition, no safety reputation established yet, not a self-sufficient biotech company at the time

Groupon is a deal-of-the day Internet start-up company that was launched in 2008 in Chicago.

Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that is localized to major geographic markets worldwide. Launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City, and Toronto. Groupon has over 50 million subscribers across 300 cities in more than 40 countries. The idea for Groupon was created by Andrew Mason who is currently the company’s CEO. [update]Groupon serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 60 million registered users. The growth in the future is likely to be at a slower pace, primarily because the company is already one of the largest in the local deals space.

3. What was transpiring in the US IPO market prior to Facebook’s offering? What has been the performance of recent IPO’s (during the lead-up to the Facebook offering)?

* What is an Initial Public Offering and why is it such a big deal?

I believe that Groupon has become successful for many different reasons. First of all, Groupon was the first to transport the traditional “Coupon clipping” to the online world. This opened many opportunities. It was something new, exciting to consumers that they hadn´t seen in this way. So Groupon had a first mover advantage even though they only connected already existing ideas and technologies in a new way. By being online Groupon could reach many, possibly millions, of people at once. This was a strong argument when Groupon talked to local merchants. As most of these merchants did not have an extensive marketing budget and were not necessarily familiar with new

Customer service issues: Many small and new companies participate in Groupon. Usually, they are not prepared to handle overwhelmed sales and overlook the customer inquiries. This will affect the image of Groupon for poor customer service and response. Furthermore, the buy now and use later concept has made the customer unhappy due to the appointment has so limited and was blocked out of peak season.