Groupon to Try Paid VIP Program

Last November, in a post entitled “Numbers Behind Groupon’s Business Warrant Caution After First Day Pop”, I cautioned investors that the IPO of daily deal leader Groupon (GRPN) looked sky-high at the initial offer price of $20 per share, which valued the company at an astounding $13 billion:

Kid Dynamite submits: The headline Friday night was "Groupon Said To Reject Google's Offer." Wowza. First, a little background for the uninformed: Groupon is a localized online coupon site. They solicit retailers in various metropolitan cities, inducing them to offer deals which Groupon markets to their audience of eager bargain hunters.

Jason Chew submits: For years, much of Ariad Pharma’s (ARIA) value had been tied to its mTOR inhibitor, Ridaforolimus. Ridaforolimus is an orally bio-available analog of Rapamycin- an immunosuppresent discovered decades ago- the “R” in mTOR. Thus far, there are two other analogs, or Rapalogs, as they are called, approved in oncology indications ahead of Ridaforolimus, the first-to-market Torisel from Wyeth (WYE), and Afinitor from Novartis (NVS).

Every now and then, there's a company that I simply find as having an unsustainable business model. It's not so much an issue of not respecting the company, it's just that the business (as it is currently operating) cannot be seen as an ongoing concern. The Street.com reports: Groupon Plunges on Revised Results

By TechCrunch: By Colleen Taylor

By Robert Jackson:OpenTable (OPEN) stopped its daily deal offers after concluding that fine dining restaurants are better served by real-time revenue management systems that restrict discounts to off-peak periods. OpenTable's rejection of Groupon (GRPN)-like offers may be a reasonable case study for problems that Groupon may face in other verticals.

Deal will take Co