Groupon COO heads back to Google

Groupon announced via its blog that its chief operating officer, Margo Georgiadis, would be leaving after just five months for a job with her former employer Google.

Georgiadis left her position as Google’s vice president of global sales back in April to work for the group buying giant. According to the blog post, she will return to the search giant as president of the Americas.

“Groupon is a great company and I feel privileged to have worked there even for a short time,” Georgiadis said in the blog.

“It was a hard decision to leave as the company is on a terrific path,” she continued.

It is the second time this year that Groupon has lost its chief operating officer. Turnover among executives has been cited as part of the reason the startup has delayed an initial public offering of stock (IPO).

“As a fast-growing company, we’ve done a lot of hiring this year, including on our senior executive team,” said CEO Andrew Mason in a blog post.

“It would have been great if I could say that we batted 1 000 percent, but that’s rarely the case,” it continued.

Groupon has seen tremendous growth since it was launched in Chicago in November of 2008. This growth has not, however, always translated into profit.

Revenue climbed to US$392.6-million in the second quarter of this year from US$1.2-million in the same period in 2009, but the company posted a net loss of US$101.1-million as compared to a minimal profit of US$21 000, according to IPO paperwork filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the same two-year stretch, Groupon expanded into 170 new North American markets and 45 countries, according to the filing.

The number of Groupon subscribers grew from 152 203 as of the end of June 2009 to 115.7-million at the end of the second quarter this year, SEC paperwork indicated.

Groupon also amended its initial public offering registration statement Friday, indicating that it will continue with its IPO despite rumours of delay.