Since coming public in November, Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) has lost about half its value. But early this week, the company had a blow-out earnings report, which popped the stock. Unfortunately, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is now investigating the trading in the stock ahead of the earnings report.
The investigation is still in the early stages and may result in nothing. After all, Groupon’s stock was heavily shorted, and there may have been a “short squeeze.”
Then again, Groupon has already had issues, such as a restatement of its earnings. The company’s auditor also reported a “material weakness” in its internal controls.
But Groupon has made some moves to help improve its systems. For example, the company recently added two top members to its board: American Express’ (NYSE:AXP) chief financial officer Daniel Henry and Deloitte’s chairman Robert Bass.
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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