“…It’s just the sort of bargain lucky punters might root out on a discount website.
Once on sale for $20, now going cheap for $6.
Quick – where do I enter my credit card details?
Yet Groupon, the website that promises to offer the best daily deals in town – as long as you are desperate to get your teeth whitened or go on a spa break – represents anything but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
At this price – its shares have slumped 70 per cent since they floated with much fanfare last November.
Groupon executives are pegging their woes on the weak economy on this side of the Atlantic.
True, the business is growing at half the rate of North America in Europe.
But the economy is really only part of Groupon’s problem.
More challenging is rebounding from a stinking report from the Office of Fair Trading.
Only a few months ago, the website was forced to clean up its act after a string of complaints about misleading advertising and unfair practices such as exaggerating reductions – and failing to warn companies of how many customers they should reasonably expect…”
(cont..)
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