[JumpCrisscross]

> at least some of this money will be used to pay off initial investors

This is almost certainly NOT happening.

No sane company sells prefs with 1x liquidation preferences to pay back investors at, relatively speaking, 0.05x. When companies want to help early investors out they facilitate a secondary transaction. These $850MM are, in all likelihood, going straight to the balance sheet.

[jgalt212]

yes, but this $30B valuation certainly helps facilitate a lot of secondary transactions.

[bogomipz]

Could you explain what 1x liquidation preferences are and why would be on .05x if they were paying out early investors?

[greenleafjacob]

If this round had 1x preference then if AirBNB today sold for $850M then all the money goes to the investors.

[mbesto]

> These $850MM are, in all likelihood, going straight to the balance sheet.

That's not what Groupon did.