Groupon Significantly Restates Earnings

scott

I like the product, but geez, their accounting continues to seem so loosey-goosey.

"In its SEC filing, Groupon said it sets aside a refund reserve by applying a financial model based on refund patterns from previous deals. The problem with this approach was that refund behavior started changing in late 2011 as the company introduced higher-priced deals, which required commensurately higher refund payouts when customers requested returns. Groupon was still modeling the size of its allowance on lower-priced deals."

"In a statement, the company acknowledged "a material weakness in its internal controls." Groupon elaborated on these shortcomings in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying that its financial procedures were insufficient for supporting "accurate and timely" reporting of its results. "

http://www.latimes.com/business/chi-groupon-revises-4q-earnings-down-20120330,0,6983721.story

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/groupon-tvixes-muppets

Sven

The whole thing smells fishy... where are the internal auditing?

It maybe a good idea if any of your fund managers are holding this stock?

Sven

Please scroll down to bottom to locate the top mutual fund holders. Do you have any of the funds in your portfilio?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=GRPN+Major+Holders