Another article[1] on WSJ has as its title "Groupon posts surprise loss" and I thought, how is it a surprise? Personally I was expecting a loss, when I read through their S-1 both before and after the amendments the numbers still didn't add up. If I could find a reasonable source of Groupon stock to borrow for 12 months I'd be tempted to short.
You could just take a spread bet position instead. Doesn't require collateral, doesn't have a cost of funding/carry and, at least in the UK, gains are tax free.
Yes it's a leveraged product but that doesn't mean you need to take any more risk. You can put on the equivalent risk of any physical trade. Tne only difference is you're not putting down the money upfront. And of course you can put on stop-loss limit to close the trade if your losses exceed your threshold.
Some or many were expecting a profit and in fact the main reason for the loss was extraordinary overseas taxes which will not happen in the same manner going forward.
You can hate Groupon but that doesn't change that it is a huge, fast growing, profitable (expected in Q1) business.
[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020436940457721...