Groupon to kick off IPO road show next week?

Reports have it that Groupon's IPO is back on schedule and the road show will launch Mon or Tues

Another day, another Groupon IPO story. 

After several prospectus amendments and the departure of two COOs, Groupon has reportedly decided to press on with its IPO and has scheduled its road show for investors early next week, according to a report from AllThingsD.  The road show will kick off on Monday or Tuesday, according to sources.

Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler declined to comment.

The news comes on the heels of Groupon’s latest S-1 amendment, in which the company promised to “significantly” reduce marketing spend.  Groupon’s financial data has come under close scrutiny since the company filed for its IPO back in June.  First and foremost, there was the issue of just how much money Groupon spends on subscriber acquisition.  In 2010, Groupon made $312.9 million in revenue, but spent $284.3 million on marketing.  All told, the company suffered a staggering net loss of $389.6 million last year.  And it’s on track to lose even more this year: the company has already posted a net loss of $203.9 million for the first six months of 2011.

And then there were the problems over how Groupon calculates its financial data.   In August, Groupon amended its prospectus to drop its adjusted CSOI (consolidated segment operating income) metric, which calculated income without including the costs of customer acquisition or marketing.

But the company was still calculating its own revenue as the total amount that each Groupon brought in—including the merchant’s share.  In other words, while roughly half of every dollar earned by a Groupon deal goes to the merchant, Groupon was including that as part of its own revenue, thereby artificially inflating its total revenue to $713 million in 2010, rather than the true $312.9 million that Groupon was taking home.  Sooo, that had to be changed back in September.

Also in September, CEO Andrew Mason’s leaked memo to employees boasting of Groupon’s explosive success required explaining—and thus called for yet another S-1 amendment.

While Groupon was rumored to be planning to kick off its IPO road show after Labor Day, market fluctuations reportedly prompted the company to postpone its IPO.  But reports held that the company still planned to go public in the fall.  Now it looks like it could be right around the corner, which—given the continued fluctuations of the market—may indicate that Groupon’s last quarter was pretty solid. 

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