(Boursier.com) — Groupon drops by 7% before the stock market on Wall Street. The fallen US group-buying star posted a fourth-quarter loss of $55 million, $1.82 a share, compared to net profit of $29 million in the same period a year earlier. The adjusted loss, which excludes stock-based compensation expense and other items, was 38 cents per share, compared with earnings of 18 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue fell to $148 million from $223 million a year earlier. The FactSet consensus was 33 cents loss per share and $160 million in revenue. In addition, the group announced its intention to cut 500 jobs worldwide, around 17% of its 2,900 positions. Groupon expects the layoffs to be completed by the end of its June quarter. With this and other cost reductions, Groupon says it can save $250 million on an annual basis.
Groupon withdraws its annual forecasts, due to its recovery strategy and an uncertain macroeconomic environment. “We are executing a transformation strategy that we believe will allow Groupon to unlock its full potential,” assured Kedar Deshpande, CEO of Groupon, with his usual optimism. “While we faced macroeconomic headwinds in 2022, we also believe we have not moved quickly enough to adapt our business model to meet the new and emerging needs of our local merchants and customers… Looking to 2023, we are focusing the entire organization on three areas: improving our market offering to drive customer demand, leveraging an improved inventory base to make our marketing and promotional spend more efficient, and do both in the context of a significantly streamlined cost structure and much better operational rigor.”
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