I have no doubt their business will continue to be successful, as b&m stores are, but I have serious doubt about their sustained growth prospects as the newness of their model wears off. At some point Groupon is going to have to rely on the same sleazy sales tactics as b&m stores, which will turn off a majority of the early adopters.
As stated, it would seem to run counter to FTC section 233:
IMO they were idiots not to take the GOOG offer. It was a huge one and I doubt they will ever reach that valuation again. Discounts like gropon never work I don't know many people who have give n the business a consistenty repeat busiinessafter going there first using a groupon.
The growth is staggering but not sustainable.
You're assuming that money is the only thing that counts for them.
Groupon and their clones only need to pull these types of shenanigans to scale.
If they refine the model to compete largely with themselves, in the end, the company will win.
In order to do this, Groupon (or likely a smart clone) needs to break itself apart into niches and dominate the smaller markets that they are engaged in.