Lately, I developed a love for
Hacker News and have been spending lot of time on their site. Someone submitted on HN a link to an excellent article explaining the recent
Groupon accounting issues. Using a simple example of 'cool sculpting', author clearly explains the Groupon business model and how, at least theoretically, there is a
potential to lose lot of money in each deal [though it is only in theory].
One can get a clear understanding of how these deals work, how much Groupon earns on each deal and how much a merchant can make and so on.
My first, impression after reading it is, good for Google; the Groupon
buyout attempt
didn't work for them.