Groupon Inc. swung to profit in its latest quarter, thanks to a
gain stemming from a recent divestiture.
Adjusted results fell short of analysts' expectations and shares
slipped 2% premarket.
The Chicago-based company, which began as a website offering
daily deals for products and services, in April reached a deal to
sell a controlling stake in Ticket Monster—a large mobile commerce
company based in South Korea—for $360 million. The sale netted a
significant return on the business it had bought from rival
LivingSocial Inc. last year.
In the second quarter, the gain from the Ticket Monster sale
offset Groupon's loss from continuing operations.
The company has reported mostly quarterly losses since going
public at the end of 2011, and it has seen its stock plummet from
about $26 a share to under $5. Year-to-date, shares are down
42%.
Groupon has made efforts to turn itself around by transforming
into a broader e-commerce site with longer-term offers and local
listings. Groupon last year released several new products,
including a tablet-based checkout register for small businesses and
a listings service that competes with Yelp Inc. Last month, Groupon
bought online and mobile-food-delivery service OrderUp.
On Friday, Chief Executive Eric Lefkofsky said that all of the
company's businesses, adjusted for currency, are now growing. North
American sales, which account for about two-thirds of overall
revenue, rose 14% as sales in the Europe, the Middle East and
Africa segment increased 9.3%. In the rest of the world, Groupon
said, sales fell an adjusted 3.8%.
Overall, Groupon reported a profit of $109.1 million, up from a
year-earlier loss of $22.9 million. On a per-share basis, Groupon
earned 16 cents after losing three cents a share in the year-ago
period. The sale of Ticket Monster added 21 cents a share.
Excluding that impact, adjusted earnings were two cents a share, up
from a loss of a penny per share in last year's quarter.
Revenue increased 3.1% to $738.4 million. Stripping out
foreign-exchange fluctuations, sales increased 11%, the company
said.
Analysts had projected adjusted earnings of three cents a share
on $740.3 million in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.
Active customers, or customers who have purchased a voucher or
product within the past 12 months, rose 6% from a year earlier,
while gross billings edged up to $1.53 billion from $1.5 billion a
year earlier. Groupon said currency-adjusted gross billings grew
10%.
Write to Lisa Beilfuss at lisa.beilfuss@wsj.com
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