Groupon Gets Rid of Controversial CEO Andrew Mason
In a move that shouldn’t come as much of a shock to anyone, Groupon has announced a “leadership change” that involves the replacement of now-former CEO Andrew Mason with a new “Office of the Chief Executive,” comprising executive chairman Eric Lefkofsky and vice chairman Ted Leonsis. The move is effective immediately. Lefkofsky and Leonsis will serve in this new role on an interim basis, as the board searches for a new CEO.
“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 press release. “As a founder, Andrew helped invent the daily deals space, leading Groupon to become one of the fastest growing companies in history.”
In a letter tweeted out from an unverified Twitter account under the name of Andrew Mason, the former CEO of Groupon apparently wrote the following to the company’s employees:
(This is for Groupon employees, but I’m posting it publicly since it will leak anyway)
People of Groupon,
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. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.
You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I’m getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we’ve shared over the last few months, and I’ve never seen you working together more effectively as a global company – it’s time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.
For those who are concerned about me, please don’t be – I love Groupon, and I’m terribly proud of what we’ve created. I’m OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I’ll now take some time to decompress (FYI I’m looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I’ll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.
If there’s one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness – don’t waste the opportunity!
I will miss you terribly.
Love,
Andrew
This announcement comes less than a day after Groupon announced disappointing fourth-quarter results, which included a bigger-than-expected net loss of $81.1 million and a forecast for the first quarter of 2013 that fell short of analysts’ expectations. The daily-deals company’s international segment continues to struggle as well.
GRPN ended Thursday down 24.3 percent, finishing at $4.53.
Here’s to Mason and his cat-as-a-hat personality. His departure marks the end of an era, one that had a lot more optimism about the viability of the daily-deals business model.
It remains to be seen if Michael will be evicted from his room.
