Groupon IPO May Be Delayed After SEC Questioning

Posted on July 27, 2011

Groupon‘s long-awaited IPO won’t come until mid to late September thanks to some back-and-forth with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the company’s accounting, according to a report.

The SEC is discussing “self-selected financial metrics” the company included in its pre-IPO paperwork, according to a report that aired Wednesday on CNBC. (The video is available below.)

A Groupon rep declined to comment, citing a quiet period for the company.

According to the report, the SEC is discussing Groupon’s S-1 and suggesting changes to improve it. In mid-July, Groupon filed an amended S-1 that reflected those changes, but a discussion is continuing over Groupon’s “gross profit and consolidated segment operating income.” Groupon defines that as what it retains after paying a merchant its share of the profits from a sale. However, the figure doesn’t include marketing expenses.

The SEC “has concerns about how these metrics are used and presented and is hashing out with Groupon how best to present them in its prospectus,” says the report.

Groupon filed for an IPO June 2. The review process usually takes two to three months, but given the SEC’s questions, the IPO isn’t likely to hit until mid-September at the earliest.