It appears that Groupon is delaying its IPO.
A report from the Wall Street Journal, citing “a person familiar with the matter,” indicates that the company has canceled its IPO roadshow and is “reassessing the timing” of the IPO, which was reportedly going to to happen “after Labor day”.
The SEC, according to the report, has also been questioning the company about a recently leaked internal memo from CEO Andrew Mason to employees geared at boosting employee morale in the face of negative media attention. All Things D posted that in its entirety here.
As others have noted, Wired had to pull its IPO after such a memo was leaked.
Groupon filed for a $750 million IPO in June.
Last year, Groupon turned down a $6 billion offer from Google, and now the competition is coming out of the woodwork, including from Google itself, though some competitors have eased up a bit (namely Facebook and Yelp).
The company lost $413 million last year.
Recent Hitwise data indicates that Groupon’s traffic declined by 50% this summer, while its closest rival LivingSocial’s traffic increased by 27%.
