Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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    Monday, October 24. 2011

    Going to Market with Groupon

    We all look for great deals when we buy things.  Groupon has taken this concept and turned it into a phenomenon.  Alas, it is an easy concept to mimic.  Living Social, Facebook, and Google have all launched similar products.


    Meanwhile, the Groupon idea is not always a winner for the small businessperson seeking to corral new or increased business.  I recently utilized one of their offers at a local business.  While it was a savings for me, it represented a loss to the business owner.  This is the risk many people are willing to take to drive business, leading many to try Groupon once and abandon it. The Groupon story from a sales and income perspective is fraught with issues.


    So is their IPO.


    There was a time any dot com business could drive an IPO skyward.  The new ideas coming out today are too easy to mimic and barriers to entry are low.  Maybe someone can explain why Linked In is priced at $92, when it only earns $.07 per share and has competitors targeting it like mad?


    These new businesses are not groundbreaking ideas and are being overvalued.


    Groundbreaking ideas are what will drive the economy forward.  Not IPOs for coupon books.

    Posted by Bulldog at 18:34 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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    Groupon released their first earnings report, and to say the least, they underwhelmed. I had shared some of my thoughts about Groupon several months ago. But something new is afoot. In the last week, we've seen Facebook file for an IPO.
    Weblog: Maggie's Farm
    Tracked: Feb 28, 08:37

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