Andrew Mason

The checkered past of Groupon's chairman

Groupon's largest shareholder and chairman, Eric Lefkofsky, has a back story investors might want to know.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- "Lets start having fun... lets get funky... let's announce everything... let's be WILDLY positive in our forecasts... lets take this thing to the extreme... if we get wacked [sic] on the ride down-who gives a shit... THE TIME TO GET RADICAL IS NOW... WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE..."

This is a MORE

Does Mason want to get out of Groupon?

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

Troubling financials and an offering letter full of mixed messages should make investors wary about buying into Groupon's IPO.

FORTUNE --- Dear Potential Groupon Shareholder,

I'm writing this letter to provide some insight into the Groupon IPO that was omitted from the cheery, twee "Letter from Andrew D. Mason" that prefaced the prospectus filed by the group-buying startup.

You get the feeling that the original draft of Mason's letter was MORE

Today in Tech: The Groupon brouhaha

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* With 7,000 employees and a recently-filed initial public offering (IPO), Groupon is one of the fastest growing companies in tech right now, but it's business model remains a mystery to most. Here's a primer, and for further reading, check out two opposing critical view points that have emerged MORE

Today in Tech: Groupon's $25 billion IPO

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Groupon is reportedly in talks with various banks over an initial public offering (IPO) that would value the daily deals site for as much as $25 billion, roughly half of what Facebook is currently worth. Given Groupon's recent actions -- walking away from Google's $6 billion offer, building MORE

Today in Tech: Microsoft's exec shake-up, Groupon's Tibet ad

A curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is planning even more executive management changes at the Redmond-based software giant to add senior product executives with an engineering background and with experience executing product plans. So far, four top execs have left the company since May, including 23- year company veteran Bob Muglia. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
After temporarily halting shipments of its Sandy MORE

Today in Tech: RIM PlayBook, Groupon, Facebook

A curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web.

Groupon reportedly turned down Google's rumored $6 billion buyout offer because its board was concerned about anti-trust scrutiny from regulators. (Google is already knee-deep in two anti-trust investigations.) CEO Andrew Mason also says he wants the company to stay independent in the near future. (Tech Trader Daily and ABC News)
A group of hackers MORE

Google's Groupon groping reveals the shifting power in the web world

First Yelp, now Groupon: Why hot startups -- especially those holding the key to "local" -- keep slipping through the search giant's fingers.

While the official confirmations have yet to land (and my colleague Dan Primack is following up on Groupon CEO Andrew Mason's hopefully tongue-in-cheek offer to discuss the finer points of his affection for miniature dollhouses), it's looking like talks between Google and Groupon have fallen apart. The situation MORE

Three reasons Google wants Groupon

Is $5.3 billion an astronomical amount to get the popular deal-a-day web site? Not really. Here's why.

If Google's $5.3 billion offer goes through later this week as suggested, it could be Groupon's lucky day.

Not that luck has been really necessary for the Chicago-based, deal-a-day e-commerce site, which delivers daily discounts and deals from local businesses to 30 million users across 500 markets in 30 countries. Since CEO Andrew Mason launched MORE