New Groupon mobile payments system using an iPhone or iPod Touch

New Groupon mobile payments system  using an iPhone or iPod Touch : Groupon launched a payment service Wednesday that allows businesses to accept credit cards using an iPhone or iPod Touch, becoming the latest company to enter the growing mobile payments market.

The announcement sent the online deals company's stock up nearly 6 percent. Groupon shares climbed 26 cents to $4.95 in midday trading. The Chicago-based company went public in November at a stock price of $20.

Groupon Payments is aimed mainly at businesses that offer deals through the company, though they can use the system to process any credit card transaction. A test program allows other merchants to use the service, but at higher rates.

Groupon's technology has been tested in the San Francisco Bay Area and will go up against eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's Square. Those services also allow merchants swipe credit cards on their phones using a small card-reader attachment.

The services are aimed mainly at small businesses that, until now, haven't accepted credit card payments because of high transaction fees. In some cases those businesses lacked the technology required to process credit cards. The service takes advantage of the proliferation of smartphones in recent years.

Each time a merchant swipes a credit card issued by MasterCard, Visa or Discover, Groupon will charge a 1.8 percent fee plus 15 cents for each transaction. American Express cards will be assessed a 3 percent fee plus 15 cents.

In comparison, Square charges 2.75 percent per swipe, or $275 per month. PayPal charges 2.7 percent. These fledgling services are also up against traditional credit card processors such as Visa or American Express.

Groupon has seen a sharp decline in its stock price since going public late last year. With Groupon Payments, the company is trying to broaden the array of services it offers merchants amid growing worries about "daily deal fatigue" among customers. With competitors such as LivingSocial and Amazon.com Inc. flooding people's inboxes with discounts for spas, manicures, trips and restaurants, it's becoming difficult to stand out.

Groupon says merchants can use its payments service to add tips, taxes and email receipts to their customers. And it plans to process payments overnight, faster than many traditional credit card companies, which can take as long as three days.

"Our goal is to provide powerful and affordable tools to help Groupon merchants run their business," said Mihir Shah, vice president of mobile and merchant products for Groupon.

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Groupon Earning estimates report 8/13/2012

Groupon Earning estimates report 8/13/2012, Groupon EPS : Groupon Inc. ( GRPN ) is scheduled to release its fiscal second quarter 2012 results after the closing bell on August 13, 2012. In the run up to the earnings release we do not notice any significant estimates revision by the analysts covering the stock.

Groupon reported better-than-expected first quarter results. Quarterly revenue of $559.3 million soared 89.0% year over year, driven by higher gross billing and steady increase in the number of active customers.

Earnings estimates provided by Zacks
The consensus estimate has risen from three months ago when it was a loss of 3 cents. It hasn’t been adjusted since. For the fiscal year, analysts are expecting a loss of one cent per share. Analysts are projecting that revenue will stay flat at $574.2 million this quarter. For the year, revenue is projected to come in at $2.39 billion.

The majority of analysts think investors should stand pat on Groupon, with 11 of 18 analysts rating it hold. Analysts have become more cautious about the stock in the last three months

according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Groupon Inc. (Nasdaq: GRPN) is a local e-commerce marketplace that connects merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount. The company has a market capitalization of $4.3 billion. It is expected to report FY2012 second-quarter EPS of 3 cent on revenue of $573.13 million. Groupon turned a profit in the first quarter, making 2 cents a share on revenue of $59.28 million. Groupon is trading around $6.65 a share, which is 67 percent off its initial public offering price of $20 last November.

Recommendation
We believe that Groupon is well positioned to gain from increasing e-commerce spending on mobile devices, profitable domestic market and an under penetrated international market. We expect these opportunities to continue to drive top-line growth going forward. Moreover, Groupon enjoys a first-mover advantage in the daily deals market based on its well-recognized discount coupons.

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How will Zynga, Groupon stock prices next week may 28 2012

How will Zynga, Groupon stock prices next week may 28 2012 : Facebook has been beset with questions since its IPO dropped below its offering price of $38 per share. The troubles of the stock have affected a number of other new Internet stocks. Now, with lock-ups expiring, what will happen next with these stocks?

Social gaming company Zynga’s lock up agreement ends on May 28, 2012, meaning that those shares will go on the public market May 29. About 325 million shares will be freed up on Tuesday. From Zynga’s S-1 filing: “Substantially all of our outstanding shares, other than those sold in our initial public offering, are subject to lock-up agreements from that offering that expire on May 28, 2012.” Another 200 million shares will be released later this summer.

Zynga’s stock has been languishing of late. The stock got a boost in February, when Facebook‘s S-1 for its IPO was filed, revealing that Zynga made up 12% of Facebook’s revenue. But after Facebook’s IPO flopped, Zynga dropped in sympathy. Zynga recently posted earnings that beat Street estimates. The stock closed Friday at $6.61, down 2.79% for the day, and well below its IPO price of $10 per share. Zynga was the biggest Internet IPO since Google at the time but closed below its offering price at $9.50 per share on the first day of trading.

Meanwhile, daily deals company Groupon’s lock-up expires on June 1, which will open up the possibility of more than 600 million shares being sold. Groupon priced its blockbuster IPO in November at $20 per share, but the stock has been hovering below $15 per share since April. Groupon shares closed Friday up 1.35% to $12.05. Meanwhile, Groupon recently posted first quarter earnings that beat expectations.

How will these shares coming to the market affect the stock prices? Stay tuned next week.

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Groupon financial result report feb 9 2012

Groupon financial result report feb 9 2012 : Groupon has reported an unexpected loss in the final quarter of 2011, suggesting a vulnerability in the worldwide daily deals market. In the firm's first set of results since its listing on the US stock market, Groupon reported a net loss of $42.7m (£27m), when analysts had been expecting a small profit.

This was also despite revenue increasing 194% to $506.5 million in the final three months of 2011, compared to $172.2 million in the same period in 2010.

Gross billings, which reflects the gross amounts collected from customers for Groupons sold, excluding any taxes and refunds, increased 201% to $1.25 billion in the quarter, compared with $415.3m the previous year.

The company's net loss for the whole of 2011 was $350.8m, although that was down from $456.3m in 2010.

Groupon went public on the New York stock market last November, attracting a valuation of $12.7bn (£8.1bn), although its share price fell sharply shortly after.

Shares in the company tumbled 13% in after-hours trading yesterday to $21.35, although that was still above the listing price of $20.

"Groupon had a strong fourth quarter and we finished 2011 having helped 250,000 local merchants across 47 countries grow their businesses while saving Groupon customers billions of dollars," said Andrew Mason, the chief executive and co-founder of Groupon.

"We will continue to invest in new services and tools that help our merchant partners be more successful and drive local commerce around the world."

The number of people who purchased a Groupon in the fourth quarter of 2011 increased to 33m, up by 20% on the preceding three months.

But analysts are concerned that the firm is not demonstrating enough growth in regular customers.

Sameet Sinha at B. Riley and Company told BBC News: "The number of active customers came in short. That means not enough people are buying Groupons.

"Yes, you can get fewer people to buy more, but how long can that continue? You need to start investing in new customer growth."

Groupon blamed the fourth quarter loss on $34.8m of tax expenses in some of its international businesses, saying that it is paying an "effective tax rate of approximately 1600%".

It also said that the cost was down to "additional income tax provisions related to the establishment of the company's international headquarters in Switzerland".

Groupon is also currently under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) after the firm broke UK advertising regulations 48 times in less than a year. For the latest updates on the stock market, visit Stock Market Today

Groupon stock feb 9 2012, Groupon shares prices outlook 2012, Groupon stock prices feb 9 2012, Groupon outlook 2012, For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today

Groupon Inc stock prices outlook december 15 2011

Groupon Inc stock prices outlook december 15 2011 : Citi Investment Research analyst Mark Mahaney provided the Chicago-based company a “Neutral” rating and marked a price of $24 for its shares, $4 higher than the stock’s IPO price. Mahaney stated Groupon has been “extremely impressive” up to now but must succeed in new segments to make considerable progress, and that could take “significant time to prove out.” Citigroup was one of Groupon’s underwriters when the company made IPO early previous month.

Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) last session volume of 2.34 million shares was lesser than its average volume of 4.90 million shares. The stock after opening at $23.00 hit high price of $23.20 and then closed at $22.55 by scoring -3.30%.

The liquidity measure in recent quarter results of the company was recorded 0.61 as current ratio. The Company had total cash at hand $243.93 million and a book value per share as -$0.05 in the most recent quarter.

The stock price volatility was 9.88% for a week and 10.67% for a month as well as price volatility’s Average True Range for 14 days was 2.10 and its total outstanding stocks was 637.80 with 35.00 million floated shares.

GRPN generated revenue of 1.29 billion in the following twelve months and earned -$686.73 million. The Company showed a negative -44.45% in the net profit margin and as well as in its operating margin which remained -42.97%. For the latest updates on the stock market, visit Stock Market Today For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today

Groupon shares prices december 14 2011

Groupon shares prices december 14 2011 : Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN), a local-ecommerce marketplace connecting merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount, last month completed its much awaited IPO.

Technology related IPOs have generated significant interest this year. Apart from Groupon, LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) and Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) were some of the other tech-related IPOs that generated significant interest. However, after the initial euphoria, shares of most of these companies have performed poorly.

Groupon shares have been extremely volatile since the company completed the IPO on November 7. Groupon shares were listed at $20. In the first few days, the stock rallied; however, since then it has performed poorly.

Late last month, Groupon shares fell to a low of $14.85, indicating that investors were concerned about valuation at some of the recently listed tech companies. Since then, Groupon shares have recovered and are once again trading above their IPO price of $20.

In today’s trading, Groupon shares are up 6.43% to $23.68, with volume at 1.23 million. For the latest updates on the stock market, visit Stock Market Today For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today

Groupons IPO start trading on Nov 4 2011

Groupons IPO start trading on Nov 4 2011 : After months of speculation, Groupon's IPO is expected to start trading on Nov. 4, according to Renaissance Capital. Groupon has been beleaguered for months with questions about its accounting practices and mounting competition from similar deal-offering services, but a regulatory filing showed Groupon is serious about doing the deal.

Investors will soon find out if the comatose IPO market can snap back to life. Since midsummer there's been little demand for newly public companies, but now hopes are high that the initial public offering of online bargain site Groupon could reignite interest. After months of speculation, Groupon's IPO is expected to start trading on Nov. 4 2011,

Attract bargain hunters. Groupon is the latest to cut its expected price range to lure investors, says Renaissance's Kathy Smith. Cutting the expected range to between $16 and $18 a share would give the company a value of $11.2 billion, Renaissance says, down from original estimates of $30 billion and the company's own $20 billion target months ago.For the latest updates on the stock market, visit Stock Market Today For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today

groupon stock price per share

groupon stock price per share : LinkedIn Corp. raised $352.8 million in its stock market debut in May, an opening day that valued the company at $8.9 billion (all figures U.S.) Groupon Inc. has filed to raise as much as $1 billion in an initial public offering later this year. If it hits its target the company could be worth more than $15 billion.

Pandora Media Inc. raised more than $235 million in its IPO, which put the company's value at $2.78 billion. And recent paperwork from Facebook Inc. values the social media giant at $100 billion. Facebook is positioning to hold its own public offering in early 2012.

With social media gaining ever more attention, almost all of the high-profile online services see an opportunity to cash in on their popularity by offering shares to the public. However, unlike Apple Inc. or Research In Motion Ltd., which make products to sell to consumers, social media websites don't really sell anything.

The sites provide places for people to gather, share deals, listen to music or share job leads -activities that aren't exactly conducive to supporting a growing, cashhungry business. And many, such as Groupon, which provides online coupons for special offers at local shops, and Pandora, which allows people to customize an Internet radio station based on their musical tastes, are easy to imitate. Knockoffs such as Living Deal and Slacker Radio have already popped up.

"This is the big problem. You start looking at Groupon and there is no reason to believe that Google, which has a long history of very good software development, can't replicate what Groupon has done very easily. When you get down to it, all they are doing is electronically sending you coupons. It's the same with a lot of these things," says Laurence Booth, a finance professor with the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto.

"Pets.com (an online pet food vendor) went from a market value of $10 billion to bankruptcy in a span of 18 months. I would look at all of these (IPOs) as being very risky."

Groupon's growth has been stunning. As of the end of March, 83.1 million people in 43 countries had signed up for its daily deal newsletter. Its revenues jumped to $714 million in 2010 from $94 million in 2008. In the first three months of 2011, it reported sales of $644.7 million.

That still wasn't enough for the Chicago-based company to turn a profit.

According to the regulatory filings that are mandatory in preparation for an IPO, Groupon's sales growth between January and March couldn't offset a $102.7-million loss. And the company doesn't expect to see profits anytime soon.

It's important to note that mandatory regulatory filings must include all possible negative scenarios that could affect the company after its IPO, so potential investors know the risks.

"We have incurred net losses since inception and we expect our operating expenses to increase significantly in the foreseeable future," reads the company's filing. "We may not maintain the revenue growth that we have experienced since inception . we do not know whether this market will continue to develop or whether it can be maintained."

Groupon isn't alone.

LinkedIn, a website that allows professionals to network and share job opportunities, issued a similar warning before kicking off its IPO last month. After losing money since 2008, LinkedIn turned its first solid profit -$10 million in net income -between January and September 2010. LinkedIn, which has more than 90 million members in 200 countries, reported sales of $161.4 million for the first nine months of 2010, but warned investors that tough times lie ahead.

"We expect that, in the future, our revenue growth rate will decline, and we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to sustain our profitability," reads the company's regulatory filing. "We also expect our costs to increase in future periods, which could negatively affect our future operating results. In particular, in 2011, our philosophy is to continue to invest for future growth, and as a result we do not expect to be profitable."

On its first day on the New York Stock Exchange, LinkedIn's shares more than doubled to close at $94.25.

Pandora is another example. Despite having 80 million registered users listening to its radio service in the United States and more than $90 million in revenues, Pandora lost $328,000 in the last nine months of 2010 (in the company's current fiscal 2011 year). That was a big improvement over the $15.5-million net loss it reported for its full fiscal 2010 year (which ended Jan. 31, 2010) or the $27.4-million net loss it reported in 2009.

Yet on Pandora's opening day of trading this week, shares shot to $24 before falling to $17.42, for an 8.9 per cent gain on their opening price. In just one day, Pandora vaulted to become about 10 times more valuable than Internet "e-tailer" Amazon.com Inc. and 20 times more valuable than broadcaster CBS Corp.

Finding observers in favour of the ballooning IPO prices is a difficult task. The University of Toronto's Booth said consumer interest and opportunistic day traders are fuelling the rapid price increases seen over the past few weeks.

"What's happening now is that people are looking for the first day bounce," he said. "They are looking for the stock price to jump up, 20 per cent or 30 per cent because there is a lot of interest in all of these."

The fast-rising valuations in social media firms have drawn immediate comparisons with the dot-com run-up in the late 1990s when Internet grocer Webvan was valued at $1.2 billion and Internet toy retailer EToys.com hit an $8-billion valuation. One of the original social networking services, theGlobe.com, became the world's fastest rising IPO, with shares that started at $9 rocketing to $97 before closing at $63.50, for a 606 per cent increase in a single day. At its peak, theGlobe.com was valued at $840 million.

"We hope that we learn from our mistakes and that is not always the case," says Steve Foerster, a professor of finance at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. "It is to some extent a leap of faith that there is going to be a business model (for these new companies) that will provide positive cash flows consistently."

According to Pliniussen of Queen's University, potential investors eagerly watching the social media IPO frenzy of 2011, much like those who invested in the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, are not concerning themselves with financial performances.

They think of the IPO as a lottery ticket, and the only way to grab a piece of a company's potential profits, says Pliniussen. It's the hope that these companies will turn future profits that is driving the buzz.

"We don't know what the upside is. With the amount of users they are getting, if they could monetize that the cash flows would be enormous." Pliniussen says.

"We are not rational investors. People buy based on emotion. There is a sense of excitement. When Google came out at $100 (per share), everybody was extremely skeptical. The rest is history. That same faith in future speculation is happening again."

Above all others, Facebook is the social media company that is being touted as the next Google. A global Goliath, Facebook has more than 680 million active users.

While Facebook is rumoured to be preparing for an IPO next year, the company has not yet filed any of the required paperwork. However, with a company this big and high-profile, information about its finances has leaked.

According to MSNBC, Facebook earned $600 million in 2010, marking its second straight year of profitability. In 2009, its profits were reportedly in the tens of millions of dollars. Prior to that its been reported that the company has been unprofitable since its launch in 2004.

By comparison, Google reported three years of solid profits prior to listing its shares on the public exchange. Google earned $11 million in 2001, $187 million in 2002 and $342.5 million in 2003. In the six months leading to its IPO in August 2004, it earned $326.3 million. Google shares opened at $85 and closed that day at $100.34, valuing the company at $27.2 billion. The company's shares were trading above $489 on Friday, valuing Google at $157.9 billion. The company reported more than $8.58 billion in revenues and a $1.8 billion net profit during the first three months of this year.

But while Google, with its Internet search engine paving the way, has seen demand for its products increase in the years since its public debut, most other social media firms are already struggling to maintain consumer support.

According to the website Inside Facebook, the social media giant lost six million users in the U.S. and 1.52 million in Canada between May and June. The fall left Facebook with 149.4 million users in the U.S. and 16.6 million in Canada. Facebook also saw noteworthy declines in traffic from Britain, Norway and Russia.

With almost 50 per cent of the population of Canada and the U.S. already active on Facebook, the site could be reaching its saturation point in the North American market. To continue its expansion, it must look at emerging markets such as China, India and South America. There, however, it will face stiff competition from incumbents such as Orkut, Renren and Hi5. Facebook is entering those regions as the newcomer.

Groupon is experiencing similar growing pains. A recent study by Rice University in Houston, Texas, found that 32 per cent of participating merchants said they lost money through their Groupon offerings. Another 66 per cent said they made money, but of all the merchants surveyed, more than 40 per cent responded that they would not be running another discount through the company.

The shaky financial footing and limited growth potential of many of the social media companies should have investors thinking about the extent of the risks involved, says Laurence Booth of the Rotman School.

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Groupon stock Files for IPO, Groupon a closer IPO price of $5.2 billion

Groupon stock Files for IPO, Groupon a closer IPO price of $5.2 billion : NEW YORK - Groupon which name is a portmanteu meaning it is derived from two other words (group and coupon) filed its long awaited S1 with the SEC yesterday. The company offers deals and coupons and was launched in 2008 in Chicago.

The company will be offering there shares for $750 million which makes it appear this is their market capitalization. However all of there preferred shares will instantly convert into Class A shares meaning the shares outstanding will balloon by 7 times. Giving Groupon a closer IPO price of $5.2 billion.

The company has a host of competitors who have copied their simple business model. See some of Groupon imitators here. The company also has an extremely poor financial condition. With a current ratio of 0.5. The company also lost $150 million in Q1. The IPO for the company is likely a necessity given how much money it is losing. Few companies can survive losing this amount.

Gropon uses a degenerate Non-GAAP earnings which reverses there $420 million loss in 2010 into a $60 million dollar gain. In order to get this number, online marketing of $241 million is reversed, stock based compensation is reversed for $36 million and acquisition related charges of $200 million are reversed.

We agree with the reversal of the acquisition related charges but it is ridiculous that a company which generates most of its traffic to its site from ads on other sites, says that this expense is not real. Stock based compensation is also a very real expense. If there was 1 shareholder of a stock and 1 share was given away for free. I would love for the second shareholder to explain to the first that his value is the same. But this is done everyday on Wall Street. Almost every tech firm adds back stock based compensation into earnings.

Groupon recorded $640 million in revenue Q1 2011 up 1300% from the year before. However they also went from a profit of $8 million to a loss of $146 million.

We believe its likely that Groupon will have more secondary offerings after this initial IPO given its extremely weak financial position. Possibly one of the weakest ever in a tech IPO. Most tech companies are valued on absurd metrics such as 20 to 30 times revenue but these companies are usually profitable even though it is usually in small amounts. However never has an IPO ever been seen with a company losing so much money.

The company also has a dual class share structure. It is our belief to never invest in dual class shares regardless of their economic benefits. Therefore we personally would not invest Groupon no matter the price. However the stock market itself often does not price in a dual-class share discount. Though we believe there should be. If two people owned a business and person A gets to decide everything than it's hard to say person B has the same value in his shares.It will be interesting to see the movement of its share price when it finally trades. For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today