> it includes money contractually owed to a third party in its revenue, and it fails to reduce revenues by the reserves to cover refunds
This is simply false. Not only does it net out reserves from revenue, it even nets them out from gross billings:
"Gross billings. This metric represents the gross amounts collected from customers for Groupons sold, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds. We consider this metric to be an important indicator of our growth and business performance as it is a proxy for the dollar volume of transactions through our marketplace, net of tax and reserves."
All I said was that the SEC had not begun a formal investigation, which is fact. And I stand by my contention that "fraud" is probably the wrong description.
This is simply false. Not only does it net out reserves from revenue, it even nets them out from gross billings:
"Gross billings. This metric represents the gross amounts collected from customers for Groupons sold, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds. We consider this metric to be an important indicator of our growth and business performance as it is a proxy for the dollar volume of transactions through our marketplace, net of tax and reserves."
All I said was that the SEC had not begun a formal investigation, which is fact. And I stand by my contention that "fraud" is probably the wrong description.