groupon

It turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer. It wants a $25 billion initial public offering. It more or less created a breed of advertising that now every company wants into. It's grown faster than just about any company, ever. But according to multiple signals across the Web, things may be afoul at Groupon.

The latest is a chart released by Yipit, a start-up that aggregates cities' daily-deal offerings--more than 400 sites' worth--into a customizable digest that highlights individual users' preferences. Yipit said in a blog post today that it found a 32 percent decline in Groupon revenue per … Read more

Sprint doesn't like the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, and they plan on doing something about it. Firefox 4 comes out with a strong launch, and Microsoft tries to piggy back on it. Yeehaw! And, we're willing to give our brainwaves away.

Sources close to Groupon, the social-buying site, said its president and COO, former Yahoo exec Rob Solomon, is stepping down from his job.

It's not clear what the reasons for Solomon's departure are, but the move seems to be sudden. It is also unusual given the fast-track trajectory of Groupon, which is currently considering at IPO at gigantic badillion-dollar valuations.

Nonetheless, CEO Andrew Mason just sent out a short email to staff about the move. BoomTown had sent him a query earlier today about the inquiring about the possibility of Solomon's leaving.

In the e-mail, sources said, … Read more

AT&T gets bigger, a whole lot bigger with its purchase of T-Mobile. Trust us, mobile plans won't be getting any cheaper. Sprint gets a few consolation prizes, Twitter is 5 years old and we feature the "Morning-After" App.

On today's show, Time Warner's new live TV iPad app is too cool to last very long, iOS is slower than Android (but Apple's nit-picking the results, predictably), and Sony is continuing to try to turn George Hotz into a smoking crater for daring to jailbreak the PS3. --Molly

Facebook will soon begin testing a service that will provide its members local discounts, a move that will put it in direct competition with daily-deals giant Groupon.

The service will be tested in Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, San Francisco, and San Diego, and will expand on the social-networking giant's Deals program, which offers users deals to members when they use Facebook Places to check in at local business, the company said. Members will be able to buy deals and share them with their friends on the network.

"Local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature … Read more

I was watching "American Idol" the other night (yes, alright, alright), when something resembling an ad for Groupon appeared.

It was a simple little thing. There was a calendar, a voiceover telling me about all the different kinds of deals the company offers, and little bits of animation appeared on the calendar, as the deals were described. Oh, and the calendar had some strange days of the week like "Frankenday" and "Grund."

"Oh," I thought. "After all the controversy surrounding its rather fine ads making fun of American charity, Groupon's … Read more

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook asks permission to change its privacy policy

Skype tweaks Skype To Go, letting you make international calls as local ones

Sony drops the price of the PlayStation Portable to $129.99

A Chinese version of Groupon is announced

Motorola sues TiVo for alleged patent infringement in its DVRs

Motorola is sued for using the name Xoom on its new tablet

New York Sen. Charles Schumer wants HTTPS to be the default security setting on major Web sites

A man in Florida is arrested for allegedly planting viruses in Whac-A-Mole arcade games

A … Read more

With its Super Bowl ads, Groupon attempted to show its heartfelt social consciousness.

Now there's a new site that tries to use Groupon-style principles to help you veer socially toward unconsciousness.

mmjDailyDeals.com tries to give you more bong for your buck. It promises discounts of between 50 percent to 80 percent. And there is one sweet deal a day on an array of products that the company describes as "medical marijuana, hydroponics, edibles, and apparel."

Some of you will, no doubt, already be slightly excited by this prospect. So when I tell you that, according to the Huffington Post, … Read more