Groupon Inc.'s (GRPN: Quote) board of directors is considering making major possible leadership changes at the struggling daily deal website due to increasing frustration at the performance of co-founder and chief executive officer Andrew Mason, according to technology blog AllThingsD on Tuesday.
According to the report, some of the directors plan to voice their concerns about Mason at a regularly scheduled board meeting later this week amid slowing growth and stock decline. However, a change may not happen immediately.
In early November, Chicago, Illinois-based Groupon reported a loss for the third quarter that narrowed from last year on strong revenue growth. However, the company's investors were not impressed with the results, as the top-line growth was slower than previous quarters.
Groupon's international revenues continued to be impacted by economic weakness in Europe. The company, which has a business model that is easy to imitate, has also been affected by imitators such as LivingSocial and Amazon Local.
Groupon's shares plunged 87 percent to a record low of $2.63 in November, compared to its IPO price of $20 per share in November 2011. The company's IPO was said to be the biggest ever public offer by a U.S.-based internet company after Google Inc. (GOOG) raised about $1.9 billion in 2004.
Groupon had reported several accounting issues prior to going public and amended details of its financial information last year. The company twice revised its financial results before its November 2011 IPO.
In mid-November, hedge fund Tiger Global Management said it has acquired a 9.9 percent stake in Groupon even as the company's stock traded near all-time lows since it went public in November last year.
GRPN closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $3.96, up $0.16 or 4.07 percent on a volume of 12.41 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $0.15 or 3.79 percent to $4.11.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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