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08 Feb 2011 10:08

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Biz, Culture: Groupon CEO Andrew Mason tries to explain awful ad campaign

  • 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

06 Feb 2011 21:21

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Culture: Groupon wins award for worst ad campaign of the night

  • In case you haven’t seen this hot mess, here you go. Groupon just exploited the Tibetian people to sell its wares, an advertising strategy not seen since, well, ever. While Groupon does have a point, you have to get all the way to this site to find it. The odds that people will reach this site and see the joke: Zilch. Way to go, Groupon. source

08 Jan 2011 13:02

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Biz: Does Goldman Sachs’ Facebook deal hurt their image rehab?

  • The committee was undertaken in the hope and the commitment to do some things that were going to help restore and improve trust … [Instead] people are going to look at it and say do those standards seem credible in light of the Facebook deal?
  • Boston University School of Management professor James Post • Suggesting that the recent Facebook deal that Goldman Sachs put together may be questionable in the light of Goldman’s recent ethics troubles. The company even put together a business standards committee to help prevent future kerfluffles. They have a report that’s coming out next week. But instead of the story being the ethics report and the image rehab work that Goldman is doing, it’s Facebook. Somebody somewhere screwed up. source

03 Jan 2011 10:31

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Biz, Tech: Goldman Sachs investment: Facebook worth more than God

  • $450
    million
    the amount that Goldman Sachs just invested in the massive film-worthy social network
  • $50
    billion
    the valuation of Mark Zuckerberg’s baby, based largely on Goldman’s huge investment source

30 Dec 2010 12:26

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Biz: Groupon founders cash in big time with latest financing round

  • $950M the size of Groupon’s current funding round, started this week
  • $500M of that funding has already been raised (impressive!)
  • $345M of that total is going to founders and existing shareholders  source

29 Dec 2010 01:14

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Biz: After spurning Google, Groupon plans massive financing round

  • $950
    million
    the amount in financing that the IPO-pondering Groupon wants
  • $7.8
    billion
    the value of the company based on that financing round source