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by byrneseyeview 5190 days ago
Why should they have sold for $6 billion? They're worth $9.6 billion today.

Groupon is not a bet on the coupons business--that doesn't justify the current valuation. Groupon is a bet that if you can reinvent the Yellow Pages, at scale and online, you can make a ridiculous amount of money. It's probably one of the largest companies around with such a high probability of failure, but their value if they end up being the winner in local is just staggering.
1 comments
tucson 5190 days ago
Assuming Google was ok for the deal they could have sold 100% of the company against cash or maybe Google stocks. Instead they sold I think only 5% during the IPO. Right now the CEO cannot sell more of his shares until May 2012 (http://ipo.nasdaq.com/Fundamentals.asp?cikid=826818&fnid...).
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byrneseyeview 5190 days ago
May 2012 $15.00 puts are $2.10/share, so at the current market price the insiders are still ahead. They may put a premium on diversification, but they also sold stock before the IPO.
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