Groupon’s (NASDAQ:GRPN) board is considering booting its young-gun CEO, Andrew Mason, according to an AllThingsD report, and the news sent GRPN shares up nearly 5% before they calmed to more modest gains by midday Wednesday.
Mason pioneered the daily-deals business back in late 2008, then took Groupon public in late 2011 — the stock also surged, hitting a high of $26. But the good times didn’t last thanks to several accounting restatements, and troubles abroad.
To get things back on track, the company recently hired Kal Raman — a former executive at Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with extensive international experience — as the COO. But according to AllThingsD, a board meeting set for this week could be the stage for talks about “management issues.”
Mason still might keep his title as CEO. Groupon has gotten much-needed investor support lately in the form of a 10% buy-in by Tiger Global Management.
Though on the flip side, this move could be another risk for Mason — the hedge fund will want to see quick results, and without them, it might push hard for new leadership.
Update, 1:38 p.m. EST: Mason gave an interview today at a BusinessInsider Conference and there are no signs that he has lost his offbeat ways. He said: ”It would be more noteworthy if the board wasn’t discussing whether I’m the right guy for the job.” Oh, and he also noted: “If I ever thought I wasn’t the right person for the job, I’d be the first person to fire myself.”
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPOPlaybook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He is also the author of “How to Create the Next Facebook” and “High-Profit IPO Strategies: Finding Breakout IPOs for Investors and Traders.” Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.
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