If it wasn’t for Netflix, Wall Street, and Herman Cain, Groupon would probably still be one of the biggest punching bags by bloggers and mainstream media sites with slumping sales and tails of dissension. That isn’t stopping them from going public on Friday, according to AllThingsD.
More and more we are seeing how good leaders make good decisions and lead good companies to good fortunes in the tech world. The late Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, even (gulp) Mark Zuckerberg have demonstrated strong leadership through passion and intelligence over the last few years.
Groupon’s Andrew Mason has not.
This is not a company that we believe will succeed long-term. It’s not a company that should be going public but is forcing its hand now before it’s too late. The investments which seemed to make so much sense less than a year ago now seem to be fueling the push for a publicly traded stock. The pressure is coming from there as well as Mason’s ego – he must justify passing up on a $6 billion offer from Google.
This will likely turn into a Microsoft/Yahoo situation where the bigger company made an offer that was passed up by the smaller company, then a couple of years later it will seem like a bad decision. The same will happen here. Groupon is in a pressured situation and their fortunes need to turn quickly. The IPO may save them, but it won’t be enough to make them a smart choice if things don’t change with the philosophy’s at the top.
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