Groupon's Market Debut Fizzles as IPO Gains Are Erased by Sinking Stock

Well, that was fast.

After a fairly impressive market debut, Groupon's share price—following a bout of extreme shorting—has sunk to its opening price of $20.

This is unlike the other big tech IPO of the year, LinkedIn—whose debut was not only much more potent, but whose stock has held up much better. Yesterday, LinkedIn's lockup period ended, which meant early-stage investors could sell out. Its share price did drop as a result, but it is still well above its opening price, even with the burden of the down market. 

Meanwhile, Groupon is on the verge of losing value just a couple of weeks after its launch—can you imagine how investors would react on their lockup period's end? (May 2nd, if you're wondering).

I'm not going to say the word (bubble… oops), but Andrew Mason should have kept his life simple and stress-free by selling to Google for $6 billion last year. The daily deals model is not a sustainable multi-billion-dollar business.