Does Andrew Mason missed his chance with Groupon?

[jeandearme]

I want to discuss this with You, guys.

7 months ago, Andrew Mason (Groupon owner) refused to sell his flagship for 6 bilion dollars to Google. Only on the USA market You can find 425 similiar companies and Groupon consecutively looses his part of the cake.

It's obvious that this company broke commandment of entry - as we can see, so I won't bother. The question is: while money from coming IPO can be even 15 bilion - those aren't for sure. So, did he missed his chance to cash it?

And what would You do on his place? Sure 6 bilion in cash or gamble for 15?

 

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[Darkside]

I want to discuss this with You, guys.

7 months ago, Andrew Mason (Groupon owner) refused to sell his flagship for 6 bilion dollars to Google. Only on the USA market You can find 425 similiar companies and Groupon consecutively looses his part of the cake.

It's obvious that this company broke commandment of entry - as we can see, so I won't bother. The question is: while money from coming IPO can be even 15 bilion - those aren't for sure. So, did he missed his chance to cash it?

And what would You do on his place? Sure 6 bilion in cash or gamble for 15?

If Groupon IPOs soon they will get a higher valuation than LinkedIn so a 15 billion post-IPO valuation is better than a 6 billion buyout from Google. He'd be stupid if he didn't IPO now because facebook deals and google deals will eat into his business not to mention all the other daily deals copy cats like Living Social. If I was him, I think I would have taken the 6 billion buyout offer from Google.

For one thing, that's a lot of money to turn down; I think I would need a rag for all my drool. Secondly, GroupOn could have had a much better chance of survival long term if Google had bought them out rather than to go it alone. So, Mason could have got his payday and still remained the CEO for many more years.