• Yet another reason we wish the internet was the real world. Remember when Facebook announced that it might, maybe, potentially, could see itself having an IPO in 2012? Well, Zynga, perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the Facebook ecosystem, has beaten them to the punch. The popular social gaming company’s shares are now available for the public to purchase. The “Farmville” company’s stock, listed as “ZNGA” and priced at $10 a share by the company, hasn’t had a particularly good morning, falling below its IPO price at one point. Currently, it sits at just over $10. Will the stock begin to lean in Groupon’s downward direction, or will it aim for Facebook status? source

• Want to own a piece of Facebook? You might be able to in the spring of 2012. It looks like, despite founder Mark Zuckerberg’s well-known resistance to the idea over the years, the company is on its way to its “initial public offering” — the sale of stock that a private company makes available to the public. (Groupon just had an IPO, and it hasn’t been going quite so well for them.) The social media trailblazers could raise as much as $10 billion from first-day stock sales; that would put the company’s total value at $100 billion. Not bad for a guy who screwed over most of his friends from Harvard (and a couple of Winklevi) to get there. source

• $13.3 billion Groupon valuation ahead of their IPO

• $20 the cost of Groupon’s shares during its upcoming IPO
• 35M the number of shares the company plans to sell, up from 30 million
• $700M the amount of money the company plans to raise with the IPO source

• » It was supposed to be way higher than this: Back when Groupon first floated the idea of their IPO, the expected valuation was $15 to $20 billion, a number which threw investors off and led to allegations that 1) they were overhyped, 2) Groupon was an elaborate ponzi scheme and 3) their IPO is a sign that a fresh tech bubble is on the way. They backed off some of the higher valuations, but then set the price at $20 per share, instead of the expected $16-18. When it finally hits, it’s going to be an interesting ride, to say the least.

• $713.4 million the amount Groupon originally stated as its 2010 revenues
• $312.9 million the amount the company changed that to today … damn source

• » How does one misstate $400 million in revenues? Good question! Let’s ask the COO, Margo Georgiadis, what she thinks happened. Oh wait, she just resigned after five months and went back to Google. Meanwhile, chief executive Andrew Mason says that her departure offers an opportunity “reorganize in a way that reflects our evolving strategic priorities.” Great answer. We learned so much from that statement. (Edit: To explain what happened, when Groupon sold a coupon, they counted the entire coupon as revenue, despite the fact they only got half of the coupon. The SEC said that was a no-no, so now Groupon looks a lot less valuable.)

• I think investors will go for this one. Whether or not it’s worth the valuation it comes at is still an open question.
• Jacob Funds chairman Ryan Jacob • Asking a fair question about Groupon’s IPO, which the company expects to raise three quarters of a billion dollars, and could put the company’s valuation in the tens of billions. Are we in another tech bubble? Probably. If it pops, will it pop on the day Groupon hits the stock exchange? Probably not. Still though — Groupon has only been around for a little over two years (yet it feels like much longer), so they’re the ones who’ll probably get more scrutiny than anyone else here. source

• An earlier version of this post said that Groupon dropped their sponsorship of “Celebrity Apprentice.” That’s half-true. The company will no longer allow their ads to show up on the Apprentice Web site. However, they never actively sponsored them, but instead showed up on the site thanks to Google and other ad networks. So, while ThinkProgress (30,000 followers), did throw the tweet to the company (35,000 followers), and Groupon did agree to it, it’s something of a misnomer. They agreed to “dump Trump” … if Trump happens to be in the same room as Groupon. But he isn’t right now. Still, there are examples of this technique being used against sponsors, including:

• left A 2009 YouTube clip put brand logos on Glenn Beck’s head as he said offensive things. The clip was so effective that Beck lost most of his advertisers.
• right Last week, Wonkette removed a story that mocked Trig Palin’s birthday after an online campaign went after the site’s advertisers; many dropped their ads. source

(via BrooklynMutt; photo originally by Gage Skidmore)

• I wanted to dig into the whole group buying daily-deal craze and see if it’s as much of a win for merchants as it is for consumers. To test this out, I took one of my outlets and did a Groupon for it, and then did a deal through rival site LivingSocial. Let me tell you right now: It was night and day. Working with one company was a great experience. With the other, it was a mess.
• Entrepreneur Romil Patel • Introing a piece he wrote comparing the two most-popular deals services from a businessperson’s perspective. To put it simply, one had kinda-rough customer service and deals that confused consumers. The other was a pleasure to work with. Can you figure out which one he liked better? source

• We admit it: The first thing GaoPeng’s existence makes us think of is the commercial they made about Tibet. Literally, the very freaking first. It puts that whole commercial campaign in sharp relief. Are we alone in thinking about this? source

• Five days have passed since the Super Bowl, and one thing is clear – our ads offended a lot of people. Tuesday I posted an explanation, but as many of you have pointed out, if an ad requires an explanation, that means it didn’t work.
• Groupon CEO Andrew Mason • Being forced to back down on those cause-mocking Super Bowl ads which seem to have pissed off just about everybody. Within the next day or so, they’re going off the air, kids. ” We thought we were poking fun at ourselves,” he continued. but clearly the execution was off and the joke didn’t come through.” Mason says he personally takes blame for approving the ads. (thanks abcworldnews) source

• Not a single person watched our ad and concluded that it’s cool to kill whales. In fact – and this is part of the reason we ran them – they have the opposite effect.
• Groupon CEO Andrew Mason • Attempting to explain that his company’s controversial Super Bowl ads were in fact – IN FACT – meant to be respectful to other cultures and environmental causes. “The last thing we wanted was to offend our customers – it’s bad business and it’s not where our hearts are,” Mason concluded. Too bad nobody took the ads that way. Commenters on the blog post are savaging him and the company for trying to be a little too clever with its commercial approach without explaining its reasoning. They could’ve saved themselves a lot of trouble had they actually put a domain name on the ad somewhere. source