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He forgot to mention Groupon brought in $878 million in the second quarter of 2011, 10x more than they did a year ago at $87.3 million. And $334M of the $1 billion of venture capital money went to buying stock from early investors, not pouring into the company.

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You seem to disagree with the author, but ask yourself if they should still be posting a hefty loss with those numbers.

> And $334M of the $1 billion of venture capital money went to buying stock from early investors

Isn't that a different way of saying that the early investors are cashing out(to the company too, not even other outside investors) at the current valuation? That raises more questions, why would they cash out if they think the valuation is going to go up?

It was in return for turning down the $6b Google offer.

I still don't get it. If the offer was turned down, it would be because they think that either the offered price was too low, or because they think they can do better on their own(thus make even more money later). Why would any of those scenarios need a 'gift' from the company like this?

Well, yes, Groupon thought the offer was low and that it could do better on its own. And so cashed out some investors and employees in return for delaying a complete exit.

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