Groupon Inc. announced Thursday that it has fired its CEO Andrew Mason after the company reported a quarterly loss.
Deal-of-the-day website Groupon Inc. released its quarterly financial report Wednesday which drew a gloomy picture of the company, portraying a quarterly loss that missed expectations and heightened scrutiny about whether its business model is flawed. A day after that, the company announced the dismissal of its 32-year-old CEO Andrew Mason.
According to a statement released by Groupon, Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Chairman Ted Leonsis have been named the new CEOs and will replace Mason immediately.
"On behalf of the entire Groupon Board, I want to thank Andrew for his leadership, his creativity and his deep loyalty to Groupon," Lefkofsky said in a statement. "As a founder, Andrew helped invent the daily deals space, leading Groupon to become one of the fastest growing companies in history."
"Groupon will continue to invest in growth, and we are confident that with our deep management team and market-leading position, the company is well positioned for the future," Leonsis said in his own statement.
Mason was known for his sassy style of working and talking, which he continued in his final note to his employees.
"After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family,"he wrote. "Just kidding - I was fired today. If you're wondering why ... you haven't been paying attention."
Jordan Rohan, an analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus, said Mr. Mason's dismissal "was long overdue." According to Rohan, Mason was a visionary idea generator. It was impressive to see how the company grew under his guidance and leadership.
However, Rohan says that after a while, the company started to act like an overgrown kid of the Internet and wasn't able to make adult decisions wisely, making them look clumsy.
