Groupon Inc. chairman Eric Lefkofsky was reminded about pre-floatation rules when his enthusiastic comments about the daily deals company became an element in Groupon’s amended Initial Public Offering documents filed Thursday.
Among other changes reported by Business Insider, the revision warns investors to disregard comments Lefkofsky made on July 3. At the time, a day after Groupon announced plans to raise $750 million in an IPO, Bloomberg reported Lefkofsky was answering questions about his investments when he predicted,“Groupon is going to be wildly profitable.”
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission puts strict limits what companies planning IPOs can say. The revised filing therefore cautions investors to disregard that statement, since Lefkofsky “did not agree to be interviewed for the news story and, through representatives, requested that the statement not be published.”
As awkward as that looks in print, the more important change is that Groupon is losing more money than it wanted to admit. The company had originally reported its adjusted consolidated segment operating income (CSOI), an accounting term that does not include marketing expenses, but the revised filing is more forthcoming.
Groupon now states that it had a net loss of $102.7 million for the first quarter of 2011. That quarter also saw its customer base grow to 83.1 million consumers, up from 152,203 as of June 2009. Of those Q1 2011 customers, 15.8 million (19 percent) actually purchased a Groupon.
Related Links:
Groupon Inc. revised IPO filing: http://tinyurl.com/5tvxrwd
Business Insider post: http://tinyurl.com/6jxqmhf
