Groupon Loses Its Head of Groupon Goods to Staples Ahead of Q1 2013 Earnings
Late last week, GigaOM reported that Faisal Masud, the vice president of Groupon Goods, would be leaving the daily-deals company to take a position at Staples. Masud’s departure comes about a year after he left eBay to lead Groupon’s e-commerce arm, which has seen success since its inception in 2011. The news was shared just days before Groupon’s first-quarter earnings announcement on Wednesday.
“Our sources said Masud’s departure was prompted by tensions between the emerging e-commerce side of the company and Groupon’s local-coupon roots,” according to Eliza Kern at GigaOm.
In its fourth-quarter report, Groupon noted that Groupon Goods experienced a successful holiday season in 2012 and had an annual run rate of $2.0 billion in global billings.
While Groupon Goods is the company’s fastest-growing business, it has lower margins than its traditional daily-deals business.
Options traders are expecting Groupon’s shares to rise at least 15 percent on Wednesday, though this kind of optimism isn’t shared by everyone.
