Friday, October 21, 2011

Groupon Releases Shocking Numbers and the BuyWithMe Story Continues

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Daily Deal News for October 21st, 2011
Groupon Releases Shocking Numbers
Prominent daily deal company, Groupon, has gone through its share of backlash and doubt from the media, the industry and some consumers, but with the release of their Q3 today, this may all change. Rather than falling off the bandwagon this quarter, Groupon’s Q3 report shows the company unexpectedly broke even.
 
Numbers in the Spotlight:
 
Highlights of the somewhat notorious daily deal company’s Q3 included significant changes in revenue and operating income. Gross billings growth increased 24% consecutively, accumulating about $1.2 billion for the quarter. Revenue growth on the other hand, grew at a slower rate of 9% resulting in $430 million.  Customer base did continue to grow, striking the 29.5 million mark, even through a lower marketing spend.  As expected, marketing spending dramatically dropped, as Groupon attempts to lessen their image as any type of “Ponzi” scheme-based company. Lastly, “free cash flow” increased to $60 million, assumingly as a result of Groupon continually collecting cash far in advance of making payments to merchants.
 
The end result: Groupon broke even
 
Consequently, Groupon’s operating loss decreased significantly to 239,000 in Q3, a drop of over $100 million compared to the roughly $101 million in Q2. All in all, there were some single-quarter gains when stock-based compensation is excluded.  Comparatively, operating losses were $2 million with stock-based compensation is excluded, rather than the $60 million in Q2.
 
Check out our video “Inside Groupon” to see my exclusive tour of the Groupon headquarters: Inside Groupon II – With Boyan Josic – Daily Deal Media

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Lashou's IPO Said to be Imminent – Valuing Company at Over $1 Billion

Chinese Group buying site, Lashou is planning on raising between $100 million and $200 million in the next couple of weeks with an IPO in the U.S. that could value the company at more than $1 billion.
 
An unnamed source says the company really needs the money to stay alive in the industry. Lashou is just one of an estimated 5000 to 5700 daily deal and group buying sites in China, most of which were founded in early 2010. Consumer acquisition is said to be expensive and you just need to look at millions of yuan in revenues compared to the millions more spent on advertising and operating expenses.
 
Thus far Lashou has raised $166 million, giving the company a valuation of over $1.1 billion. The site also employs about 5,000 people in over 500 cities.

Could Groupon's Valuation be Working to Travelzoo's Advantage?

As Groupon moves forward with its IPO agenda, started in June, buyers in all industries are beginning to look more seriously at daily deals as highly profitable stocks. The market already has Amazon (AMZN) backing Living Social and Google Deals as a part of Google (GOOG) who each  product some success, however the biggest player in the daily deal stock game may actually be no other than Travelzoo (TZOO). The first early generation website travel company has been keeping up the date with daily deals and is the only long-standing stock thus far to largely incorporate daily deals into their business model.


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