On Sunday, Lesley Stahl had an excellent piece about Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) for CBS‘ (NYSE:CBS) 60 Minutes. She did not hold back, and even got CEO Andrew Mason to admit to a “bush-league” mistake concerning its accounting practices.
Yet Andrew kept his cool, smiled a lot and even had some good answers. For example, when discussing the aforementioned funky accounting, Andrew reasoned that Groupon is inventing a new industry. And even his well-paid auditors had trouble figuring things out. Keep in mind that accounting also has been a problem for other offerings, such as Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA).
For the most part, Andrew comes across as a truly interesting, thoughtful person. No doubt, he had some couching, but his answers felt authentic. He also used some colorful metaphors. The most notable was comparing the IPO process to a wolverine�s skin being melted away. I�m sure it�s a feeling other CEOs can empathize with.
While the interview turned out well, Groupon still is far from a sure thing. The company must deal with hundreds of competitors, including biggies like Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). Many people also have concerns about the business model and whether it can become reliably profitable.
If you want to check out the interview — which gives us a good look at the core business — here�s a clip:
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